Things My Mama Taught Me
by idealskeptic
Summary: My take on the Twilight 25: Round 7 prompts. Leah Clearwater has learned a lot of lessons in her short life, some easier than others. She's the focus of these twenty-five unrelated one-shots based on lessons your mama taught you. She'll never encounter the same person twice in her journey of life lessons. Canon characters, in all things.
1. Youth is wasted on the young

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note: **Like Leah Clearwater? Well, then this is the place for you. Every one of the 25 prompts will be from Leah's POV and be focused on her. She'll never talk to the same person twice either! Hope you like it!

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Youth is wasted on the young.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Old Quil**  
Rating: **K**

I happened to be the one closest to Old Quil when he stumbled as he got out of his lawn chair. I caught him and steadied him. "You need to sit back down?"

He shook his head and kept a tight grip on my arm. "No, I'm alright, Leah. Just need to get my feet back after all that sitting down while Billy drew out those legends."

"He drew them out?" I asked, since I had to stand there anyway.

"Mm-hmm," he grunted. "I wanted to tell him to get on with it and quit trying to make it more than it was."

Having thought the legends Billy had told over the campfire that almost all of the tribe had been gathered around – no werewolves and vampires, in other words – were suspiciously modern sounding, I couldn't help but agree with one of the oldest people in the Quileute tribe. "You should have told them," I suggested, "you tell all the old stories better anyway."

"Billy's chief," Old Quil pointed out as we started a slow walk back to the house where he lived with Joy and Quil, "he gets to tell the stories. I'm just an old man who has better things to do than listen to the chief add to the stories that are just fine as they are. I can't figure out how you young ones sat still so long."

"Boredom?" I guessed lightly. "Anyway, you should take it up with Sam and my mom. I'm sure they'd side with you and make Billy keep to the script."

He nodded his white head and snorted noisily. "I should. After all, it looks like it'll be Sam that's telling them to the next generation. He should tell them right. Emily's writing it all down, she should have the originals. I don't want to cause trouble, though."

"What trouble would it be?" I asked as we paused so he could catch his breath. "Tell you what, I'll come over after my patrol shift in the morning and you can tell me the stories. I'll write them down so they're preserved any way you look at it."

He eyed me in open surprise. "You'd do that, Leah?"

I nodded and smiled as we started walking again. "Sure, why not? I'm all about my Quileute heritage now, you know."

"I knew you would be one day," he agreed before he turned quietly thoughtful. "Alright then, come over after patrol. It isn't that Billy's changing the stories, you know. He's just trying to make them more…"

"Relatable?" I guessed, and he nodded before he continued. "That's the word for it, I think. Makes them longer, though. You must've had somewhere else you wanted to be, didn't you?"

"Not really," I admitted, feeling just a little pathetic for it. "All I do is patrol and try to avoid the boys when I'm not patrolling. Tonight wasn't a pack thing, it was a tribe thing so I didn't mind it too much. What about you? You sound like you had somewhere else you wanted to be."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he hedged vaguely.

"Hot date?" I teased as we arrived at the Ateara house.

"With my new bed," he said, winking impishly up at me from underneath his green baseball cap. "Goodnight, girl."

"Goodnight, old man," I replied, knowing he wouldn't care if I called him that. "See you in the morning."

My pre-dawn patrol shift was with Embry and Brady. Of all my pack brothers, I liked patrolling with them best. We went about our business with minds as clear and empty as we could. None of us had imprinted so there weren't any thoughts that made the others cringe and none of us liked to complain or gossip. When Jared, Seth, and Collin took over, I went home to eat whatever food my brother had left and change my clothes. I was still chewing the last bites of my bagel when I got to the Ateara's.

"He didn't think you'd really come," Joy said as she stepped outside, on her way to work, "but he's in the kitchen waiting for you anyway."

I nodded in acknowledgment and swallowed as I walked inside. "Doubting me, old man?"

He grinned sheepishly and waved his gnarled old hand toward the bedroom where I could hear Quil still snoring. "An old man hears things," he said in his own defense. "He might not believe him, but he's learned to stay wary."

"Are you going to talk in third person all day?" I asked. When he laughed and shook his head, I sat down across from him and put the laptop my mom had given me for Christmas on the table. "Good. Let's do this."

We didn't start until he scooted his chair around so that he could look at the computer – I don't think he quite trusted the Quileute stories being entrusted to a piece of technology he didn't quite understand. I asked a few questions, though, and it didn't take much more than that to get him going. We took a break at noon so I could make him tea to sooth his now sore throat; I made us lunch while I was at it.

"I've spent my whole life being jealous, Leah," he said thoughtfully as I moved around the kitchen. "Isn't that sad?"

"Jealous that your father could phase and that your grandson can, but you never could?"

"Mm-hmm," he hummed. "Silly, isn't it?"

"_Si jeunesse savoit; si vieillesse pouvoit_," I said in badly spoken French.

That perked him up. "What's that now?"

"It means _if only youth had the knowledge; if old age had the strength_," I told him. "Some French guy named Henri Estienne said it in the 16th century. I read it in a book at the Cullens' one day. Dr. Fang explained it to me."

To his credit, he didn't call me out on doing something as vampire friendly as reading their books. "Sort of like that old saying that _youth is wasted on the young_, isn't it?" he said instead.

"Hey, my mom always says that when I whine and complain," I laughed, setting a bowl of soup in front of him.

He laughed along with me and emptied about half the once full pepper shaker into his bowl. "Your mother's a smart woman, Leah. If she says it, she means it and it'd be best to listen to her. Why's she want to be young again? She's not jealous of phasing, is she?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Or else she just wants me to shut up."

Old Quil nodded and blew noisily on his spoon of steaming soup. "That could be it, too," he said, smirking at me.


	2. To err is human to forgive, divine

**If I owned this, I would not be here. Just sayin'.**

**Note: **This is not a multi-chapter story that connects. There is no couple/ship/what have you. It's just Leah discovering herself through interactions with her family and 'friends'. The vampires are vampires and the wolves are wolves. It's random. There's no timeline that's being followed, but you can just considered each of the 25 stories to be some time post-Breaking Dawn. Okay? Great, thanks! Please read & REVIEW!

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **To err is human; to forgive, divine.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Renesmee**  
Rating: **K**

I eyed the crumpled metal that had once been the hood of Baby Vamp's shiny purple sports car speculatively. "You got in an accident?" I asked, doubting that scenario even as the words came out of my mouth.

"Something like that," she muttered icily. "Can you fix it?"

"Me? Isn't Blondie the car person in your family?"

"Aunt Rosalie will kill me if she sees what I did to the present she gave me," she said, the ice melting to something near pleading. "Can you fix it, Leah?"

Knowing that she probably would also refuse to take it to her car-loving, mind-reading father, I didn't even bother to say that. "What about Ja—"

"Don't!" she shouted, very nearly stomping her little foot through the cement floor of my garage before she lowered her voice. "Don't say his name. Please."

Walking closer to the car, I trailed my fingers over the accordion-like ripples in the metal. It didn't take me long to find the faint imprint of an arm; not a fist, an arm. "What did Ja—"

"Leah!" Baby Vamp squeaked impatiently. "Please don't say his name!"

I held up my hands and took a step backward. "Calm down, before I have to call Jasper to do it for you."

Whatever retort she thought up died on her lips as something else came to mind. "Why is Uncle Jasper the only one in my family that you call by the right name?"

I let myself be momentarily distracted as I thought about that; Dr. Fang, Mrs. Fang, Freud, Leech-lover, Blondie, Bear Bait, Crystal Ball … Baby Vamp was right, he was the only one I called by name. "I don't know, I suppose I figure he's earned it." I scowled at her and looked back at the car. "Don't change the subject, Baby Vamp. You know I'm going to hear whatever He Who Shall Not Be Named did when I phase tonight so why don't you just make it less painful and tell me now."

"He didn't do anything," she said, emphasizing the male pronoun in the sentence.

I allowed myself a smug smirk; if I was going to help her, it was the least I deserved. "So what did you do?"

"I don't want to say."

I reached out and grabbed her hand, pressing it to my cheek. "Fine, then don't say. Show me. Do one or the other or I'm calling Blondie now."

Her icy breath washed over my face when she exhaled in defeat. I, meanwhile, watched the events unfold.

The short cause of it all was that Nahuel had come to visit. Baby Vamp had kissed Nahuel. Jacob saw Baby Vamp kiss Nahuel. Jacob had interrupted and Baby Vamp had shouted at him that she could kiss whoever she wanted. Jacob then went bat crap crazy and attacked Nahuel. Baby Vamp summoned all the strength in her little body and tossed Jacob – right into the hood of her precious car. It would have been hysterical if I wasn't being dragged into the middle of it.

"Where are your boy-toys now?" I asked, idly wondering how she managed to drive the thing to the rez – she probably carried it through the woods, knowing her.

"Nahuel went to Seattle. Jacob went north. You don't think they're going to fight again, do you?"

"Maybe." I shed my flannel shirt and pulled my tank top over my head, smirking when she blushed. "I'll go find Jacob. You, Baby Vamp, go find Paul. He'll be better at seeing if this is fixable at all."

She nodded in agreement and took a step toward the door. "Don't let Jacob kill him?" she asked softly.

Shimmying out of my shorts, I shrugged as I followed her. "I'll do what I can, but he's alpha so I might not be able to stop him. Tell Seth to phase if you see him."

Done talking, I phased and ran off into the woods. Mercifully, Jacob was not in the process of ripping Baby Vamp's… whatever the hell he is to her… to pieces. What he was doing might have been worse, though – moping.

_She loves you, jackass_, I said to announce my presence.

_She kissed him_, he whined.

I rolled my eyes and pawed at the ground, wiping some bear crap I accidentally stepped in off. _She's a kid, Jake. Not that I'm siding with Baby Vamp, but it's true. She's trying to figure out her feelings._

_Maybe I should let go, let her … date him._

I stifled a snicker at the way he stumbled over the phrase. _Called you a jackass earlier, _I told him_, I apparently should have said dumbass; because that's what you are. But if you want to let her date him, go tell her that and quit moping out here. She's worried you're going to kill him._

I half expected the anger I felt from him, because I was kind of angry at her myself. I didn't expect him to be quite so angry. _You're actually mad at her? _I asked in dismay.

_Yeah, I am. But I hate being mad at her. _He whined shrilly, and annoyingly. _I'm so confused, Leah!_

_Don't shout in my head! _I shouted right back. _Anyway, don't you know what they say?_

Being the dumbass that he is, he had to ask. _What who says?_

Not wanting to luck dumb, I don't answer until I dig the answer from the back of my brain where it's been uselessly tucked since my mother first told me. _Alexander Pope. A poet in England in the 1700's, before you ask, _I interjected, interrupting myself. _He said 'to err is human; to forgive, divine.'_

Jacob took a minute to think about that. _Me and Nessie both screwed up, didn't we?_

_Huh. Maybe you're not so dumb after all, _I declared. _Yes, you did. Now what do you need to do? Other than not kill the hybrid boy for kissing her?_

_She'd be upset if I hurt him_, he protested, already halfway to figuring it all out with just a few not so subtle nudges. _I need to apologize for overreacting and she needs to apologize for kissing him._

_No! She does not! Jacob Black, I swear if I find out that you made her apologize, you will regret the day you grew a freakin' tail!_

He jumped back a little from my outburst. _You like her?_

_No, _I muttered. _I just know how it feels to be a girl confused about boys. Be a man, Jacob, apologize and be done with it._

Mercifully for me, he left without making a bigger deal out my defense of Baby Vamp. Wanting to avoid things as long as possible, I wore myself out running before I dragged myself home.

Baby Vamp and Jacob were sitting on Billy's steps, cuddling disgustingly with each other.

I didn't refuse when Embry asked if I wanted to race, and I phased before he could finish the sentence.


	3. Good things come to those who wait

**Don't own it.**

_You've read Old Quil talking to Leah, how about his grandson?_

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Good things come to those who wait.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Quil**  
Rating: **K**

_Shut up._

Quil grunted as we ran. _I can't stop my thoughts, Leah. Sorry._

_You could _try _a teensy bit harder to stop them, _I suggested wearily. _You know, think about… wolf stuff._

_It's not like I'm thinking about Claire in a sexual way, _he protested weakly.

_I know, and I appreciate that, _I told him, _but you're thinking about how you _can't _think about her that way and I'm not honestly sure what's worse. I thought you were good just being her babysitter buddy until she needed something more. Right?_

_Right, _he agreed, absently sniffing at a bear trail. _But I'm just impatient, you know?_

My snort of agreement came out somewhere between a cough, a bark, and an actual snort. _I know, Quil. Believe me, I know. Hey, what was that? Claire's mother is getting suspicious?_

_Yeah, she is. She's not even listening to Emily really anymore. She doesn't know about imprinting and all that, so she just thinks it's creepy that a guy who seems too old to want to hang out with a seven year old girl. _The pain in his thoughts made me cringe as he finished what was on his mind. _I can't see her as much. It sucks._

_I imagine it does. Hey, you know what you need? A distraction. Race you back to La Push?_

Quil was wary. He knew I could beat him easily, but he also didn't quite trust me. So he stopped running completely. _Why?_

_Oh, come on, _I groaned loudly. _Trust me, Ateara. All you have to do is promise, um, Embry that you'll owe him three patrols if he does two for you. I'll promise Seth the same thing._

Still not totally trusting me, he gave in a little bit. Apparently the urge to distract himself overrode any worries he had about what I was planning for him. I beat him back to the rez easily and had Seth locked in to doing my next two patrols before Quil even had his shorts on and started searching for Embry. "Tell Quil to wait for me by the highway," I told my brother. "I need to get something from the Cullens."

I didn't stick around long enough for him to question my motives.

After all, Edward owed me. I'd spent an entire day with him in Vancouver because he wanted to surprise Alice by setting up an art show for the stuff she'd painted. Then I hid the stuff at my house so she wouldn't 'see' it until he wanted her too. It didn't take me long to remind him of that and I met Quil on the highway in Freud's latest Aston Martin. "Get in," I ordered, pushing the passenger door open, "and Jake's been in here so rolling down the windows isn't essential."

Eyes wide as he looked over the car, no doubt wondering why I was driving it, he did as he was told.

We hit 90 miles per hour in just a few seconds.

"Why are you driving Edward's car?" he asked after a few minutes. "And where are we going?"

"I helped him surprise Crystal Ball in a moment of charitable weakness on my part, so he owed me. As for where we're going," I paused to draw it out a little bit. "Vegas, baby."

He stared at me in dismay. "Vegas? Like _the_ Las Vegas?"

"No, the other Las Vegas," I huffed, rolling my eyes as I let the car hit its peak speed. "Yes, _the _Las Vegas, you idiot. You've never been there, have you?"

He shook his head, still staring at me with wide, confused eyes. "Have you?" When I said I hadn't, he asked the next question he had. "How come you want to go to Las Vegas with me?"

I shrugged and drummed my fingers on the leather covered steering wheel. "I don't know. You needed a distraction, I was bored and ansty, Freud owed me. Do you want to go home?"

"No," he answered quickly, very quickly. "But don't we need money to have a good time in Vegas?"

Reaching deep into the canvas tote bag I reluctantly carried since I was, after all, still a girl, I pulled out a perfectly round wad of cash and tossed it to him.

"How did you… where did you… did you rob a bank?" he finally spluttered, holding the money almost reverently.

I banged my head on the steering wheel. "Yes, Quil, I robbed a bank. It's a damn good thing my mom is screwing the chief of police or I'd be the one screwed. And you'd be my accomplice, so you'd be screwed too."

"Right, yeah, that was a stupid question," he admitted sheepishly. "Seriously, though, Leah, where'd you get the money?"

"Crystal Ball liked the surprise I helped Freud surprise her with," I said, shrugging. "She asked why I wanted the car, I told her, she produced the money. I didn't stick around to ask questions."

Quil offered no further objections, only insisting that I let him drive home.

Vegas was everything every television sitcom ever has ever said it was. The lights, the energy, the feel of the place… it was all intoxicating. Some Cullen or another apparently kept a suite at one of the ritziest hotels and Freud had given me the information so Quil and I were quickly swept up to the place that both of our houses in La Push could have fit into. The first thing we did was buy new clothes. I protested, but Quil pointed out that we could get into better places if we looked like we belonged.

I didn't mind the clingy bronze dress so much. It felt good to be a girl.

We did the gambling thing; slots, poker, craps, and all the others, but got bored with that pretty fast. So we did what any self-respecting, shape-shifting Quileute would do, we ate. We went from one restaurant to another, eating until the staff starting giving us strange looks and then moving on to the next one. We decided that Vegas trips needed to be a regular thing when we tasted the deserts at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant.

Two days of random gambling and eating later, we headed for home. Quil was driving and I had the business card of some fashion designer I knew Crystal Ball would know of in my pocket because he said I had just "the" look he was looking for and wanted me to model for him. I was seriously considering doing it. If Crystal Ball said he was legit.

"Thanks for this, Leah," Quil said as we got close to the Cullens' house to drop off the car. "It was a good distraction."

"You're welcome. Just be patient, Quil, you know what they say – good things come to those who wait. It'll all work out in the end."

"What? Like you and the designer?" he teased me lightly before he nodded in understanding. "I know it'll work out, Leah. I just wish it'd hurry the hell up."

"I know the feeling, brother, I know the feeling," I agreed softly as I stepped out of the car and Quil walked toward the trees. I was waiting, and good things would come. I hoped.


	4. Patience is a virtue

**Don't own it.**

_Writing kids is hard! I hope this works out alright!_

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Patience is a virtue.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Claire**  
Rating: **K**

Of all the places I ever expected to find myself, this was not one of them. How could it possibly be that no one else, not a single soul, on the rez was available to babysit Claire?

For some reason, everyone was conspiring against me.

"I'll be at Charlie's or at The Lodge if you need me," my mother said as she put on a necklace I hadn't seen her wear in years. "Claire's a good girl, I'm sure you won't have any trouble with her."

"You should babysit her," I said, jumping in front of her before she could reach for her purse. "After all, Charlie could knock you up and, let's face it, you both need the practice to get back in the swing of the whole parenting. Just in case."

She didn't buy it. Instead, she reached around me and grabbed her purse. "No, Leah. You're babysitting. I know that you turned down the camping trip that half the pack went on and the wide patrol that the other half went on. Emily's sick and I have a date. Therefore, you have to babysit."

"What about Rachel and Kim?" I protested, stupidly desperate to get out of this.

"They went on the camping trip." She shook her head and put her coat on. "I probably won't be home 'til morning."

"And that makes me want to call and interrupt if I need something," I groaned, not wanting to think about why she might not be home until morning.

She had the nerve to wink at me before she left.

I turned around slowly and looked at the little girl coloring a picture on my coffee table. She seemed quiet and content, so I decided that maybe she'd just color all night until she went to sleep. It was just my luck that Emily got sick on a night that Claire's mother had an all-night date. Since that wasn't actually luck, I wasn't all that surprised when Claire put down her crayons and looked up at me.

"I bored, Weah," she announced.

"Keep coloring?" I suggested, knowing it wouldn't work even as I said the words.

"Don't wanna. Wanna pway."

Knowing I would regret asking, I sat down on the other side of the coffee table. "Play what?"

She tilted her head to the side in thought, and thought for a very long time. "Pway dress up!" she squealed, clapping her pudgy little hands together. "Pway dress up, Weah!"

"I don't have that many clothes." Even when I was a little girl, playing dress up had been my least favorite thing. Naturally, it was all Rachel and Rebecca had ever wanted to do. "Especially not girly clothes."

Claire looked said, but she pulled herself together. "Okay, no dress up. Pway… Weah, can I go pway wif Nezzie-may?"

I suddenly wished I had a closet full of girly clothes. "You want to play with Renesmee?" I asked in dismay. "Really?"

"Yes, pwease, Weah," she replied politely. "I reawwy want to pway wif Nezzie-may. Can I? Quiwl wets me awl the time."

I knew Quil took her to Freud and Leech Lover's cottage to play with Baby Vamp all the time, but that didn't mean I wanted to. When I realized that Claire was dangerously close to crying, I caved. "Fine, we'll go to the cottage and see if Renesmee's home and wants to play, okay? But we are not going to the main house."

"Why not, Weah?" she asked as I lifted her up and settled her on my hip. "Nezzie-may might be there."

"I don't go there unless I'm a wolf and I can't babysit you if I'm a wolf," I explained, kind of doubting that the kid understood a word of it. "It's the cottage or nothing at all. Deal?"

"Okay, Weah," she agreed easily. "I hope Nezzie-may's at the cottage."

I personally hoped that she would stop wiping her grubby little hand on my neck, but I'd deal with Baby Vamp if I had to. "Me too," I sighed wearily.

As it turned out, Jacob's imprint was sitting in the little garden outside the cottage reading a book. She was all by herself. I knew that Jacob had gone on the camping trip, with extreme reluctance, but given the way her parents hovered over her, I was truly surprised that she was alone. And then I heard something from inside the cottage that explained it all. No kid wants to be around and awake when their parents do that.

"Hey, kid," I said in greeting. "Want to come play with Claire?"

Even though she was leaps and bounds more advanced than the mere human on my hip, Baby Vamp was on her little feet in seconds. "At the reservation?" she asked, actually using her voice.

I put Claire down and told her and Baby Vamp to hold hands and not move. I was about to do something I would have paid nine zillion dollars not to do. I was going inside. To get a head start and save myself some eye and mind-bleaching later, I started yelling at Freud in my head. And then I went inside.

"I'm taking your kid to the rez to play with Claire," I called out so everyone who needed to could hear me. "She doesn't need to hear this! Any objections?"

"Thank you, Leah," Bella called out.

I swallowed a growl and returned to my small charges. "Let's roll, peeps," I said, easily scooping them both into my arms. It made me feel good that they'd listened and stayed right where I told them to.

When we got back to the rez, and to my house, Claire happily set about dragging out the toys her mother had packed for her. I had to give Baby Vamp credit, though. For a kid who could read Tennyson and argue with her so-called grandfather on the motivations behind why Torquemada led the Spanish Inquisition, she sure seemed to enjoy dressing Barbie's in wacky outfits and finger-painting scenes from the Dora the Explorer books that Claire loved. She didn't even complain when Claire got paint all over her.

Maybe there was something to be learned from a carefree, happy kid and a half-vampire brat who'd stared death in the face and walked away without flinching. Maybe patience is a virtue.

Or maybe it was like my mother always said, "Leah, patience is a virtue… that you don't have."


	5. Once bitten, twice shy

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Once bitten, twice shy.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Jasper**  
Rating: **K**

"Why don't you talk?"

Jasper Hale, Cullen… whatever the hell his name was, looked up from his book, Thucydides' _History of the Peloponnesian War_, and shrugged his shoulders. "Why don't you?"

I didn't want to answer the question so I decided not to press him on it. I settled on an easier, different question instead. After all, Jasper intrigued me. I didn't like being intrigued by a vampire but the scars that covered the skin he couldn't cover, and he kept as much of himself covered as he could, were a mark of survival in my eyes. That many vampires had tried to kill him and failed. I was fairly certain that he wouldn't kill me, not simply hurt me, unless I threatened his tiny wife. And, for once, being fairly certain was enough for me. "Is that book good?"

"Not really," he admitted, his eyes back on the page. "It was dull the first time I read it and it hasn't got any better since then. Have you read it?"

"Oh God, no. They don't teach stuff that old at the rez school." I shivered at the very thought.

"It's not just the rez school, Leah," he pointed out wryly, clearly of the opinion that he'd found something lacking in the American school systems. "Believe me, no American teenage knows about the Peloponnesian War."

"And you think they should?"

"Probably not." He was quiet for a minute, staring at the book again, before he looked up at me. "What do you like, Leah? You can tell I like history, but I don't know anything about you."

What did I like? Had I liked much of anything since Sam imprinted on Emily and I phased?

"That's sad, Leah," Jasper declared bluntly, and oddly I didn't mind. I didn't know what he meant, though, so I asked him. His answer was sad, and fascinating at the same time. "I asked you what you liked, about who you are, and you can't answer that. More than that, you don't think you know the answer."

It did frustrate me that I couldn't argue with him, because he was right. It frustrated me, too, that he knew all that just by being near me while I thought about how to answer his question. "You might be more annoying than Edward," I spluttered, for lack of anything better to say.

"I know," he said, chuckling wryly. "I'm sorry if I've overstepped. Please forgive me."

I know he felt my frustration as he looked back at his book, but he didn't look up. Sniffing quickly, I verified that he and I were the only people; werewolf, human, or vampire, around at the moment. Possibly stupidly bold, I gestured toward the ground beside him. "Mind if I sit down?"

He shrugged and shut the thick book. "Be my guest."

Folding myself onto the ground, I looked around. "Cryst— Alice isn't going to panic because you disappeared when I started talking to you and stick around?" I was a teeny bit relieved that I'd caught myself before I called his wife Crystal Ball, something told me he wouldn't be too fond of that.

"She is like a crystal ball, isn't she?" Jasper said, giving me a half smile. "But I do appreciate you calling her Alice. If she does panic, I told her where I'd be. I'm sure she'll just come looking for me. Are you afraid of her?"

I laughed very quickly and then turned serious. "Only because she's your wife," I admitted freely. "Without you, no, not so much."

He did something I didn't think he could do, even around Baby Vamp, he smiled. "I like that answer, Leah. I'm always going to be around Alice, though, so be afraid of her."

"Will do," I agreed. "Where is she? I've hardly seen you two apart since you got back with the other half-breed."

Jasper waved toward a small hill a football field or so away from us. "On the other side of that hill, she's working on a painting of the wildflowers there. Before you ask, she can hear us."

Sniffing harder, I caught her scent. I'd only missed it because the wind was blowing the wrong way. "Alice?" I called out. "Do you want me to leave Jasper alone?"

"Please don't, Leah," she replied, her voice light and happy. "He'll only come bother me if you do."

That time, Jasper's smile reached his eyes. "So what do you want to talk about, Leah?" he asked, having said something to his wife too fast for me to understand. "Just ask me whatever it is you're so curious about."

"How old are you?" I blurted out, not needing to be told twice.

"I was nineteen when I became a vampire in 1863."

I did the math in my head. He was born in 1844. I blinked. "Were you in the Civil War?"

He shook his head. "Texas Cavalry until the evacuation of Galveston on New Year's Day in 1863. Then I… got drafted into the vampiress Maria's army, where I served until 1938."

"The scars?" I asked simply.

Jasper nodded once. "I was the best at what did."

He clearly didn't want to talk about all that, given the way he thumbed the book and glanced toward where Alice was, so I altered the subject a bit. "Do you know a lot about Civil War stuff? History, battles, weapons, all that?"

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

It hit me then. I liked history too. The history of my people, the history of my country, I liked it all. Only no one had ever really asked me what I liked before. I let him read what he would in my emotions and asked my question. "Will you come back to the rez with me? My dad left me a Bowie knife and scabbard that he said was used during the Civil War by a Confederate soldier. Some dealer offered me $200 and I want to know if it's worth it."

Before he could answer, Alice called out that she'd see him later. He took that as a cue to come with me.

We went the long way to avoid people, and only ran into Seth who actually seemed excited that a Cullen was on the rez. I dodged him and led Jasper into my house, handing him the knife and waiting impatiently.

"Don't take $200 for it, Leah," he said, turning it over in his hands. "It's real, and it's worth at least $7,000, more to a collector who really wants it."

I blinked twice. Guessing that Jasper didn't kid about such things, I took him at his word. "I'm not selling it anyway," I declared, taking it back. "And since I can't have kids and you'll never die, I'll leave it to you in my will."

"Thank you," he said, laughing lightly. He pointed toward an embroidered pillow my mother kept on the couch. "You know, maybe that's why you and I don't talk much, Leah."

I followed the line of his scarred hand and read the words. _Once bitten, twice shy._ "You might have something there," I agreed. "Maria, Sam, my dad, the people you killed… it's probably a wonder we talk at all."

Jasper nodded silently and led the way out of the house.


	6. Tis better to have loved and lost

**Don't own it.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Sam**  
Rating: **K**

The Volturi were gone. They'd be back, but they were gone.

The vampires were all congratulating each other on surviving. I wondered if they knew it was just for now, that whole surviving thing.

_They'll figure it out soon enough_, Sam said solemnly, answering my thought. _Let's all go home and hug the ones ones we love more than life itself._

Embry hung around the edges of the field, obviously waiting to make sure Jacob didn't become puppy chow when we all turned our backs. Seth was going to stay with him, but I nipped his tail and ordered him home. The leech who could make towering waves of water appear out of thin air, by far the coolest trick I'd seen a vampire do, snickered at Seth's startled squeal. I nodded at the vampire and brought up the rear of the pack with Paul, making sure to keep my brother in front of me.

We all phased in Sam's backyard when we got home, because it was the most secluded of yards and it was the place where we'd left our clothes. Emily, Kim, and Rachel ran out of the house and into the arms of their imprints. Holding Emily tightly, Sam ordered Quil to make sure the younger boys got home to their families with no trouble before he went to check on Claire.

"Seth, can you keep it toned down enough to let your mother know that everything's alright without making Charlie too suspicious?" Sam asked, knowing full well that Charlie was with my mom, and probably at Billy's.

As my brother protested weakly at the insinuation, probably knowing he couldn't, Paul slung an arm around Seth's shoulders. "Me and Rachel will go back with the kid and make sure he doesn't spill too many beans. I should tell Billy that Jake's alright but still attached to the bloodsuckers too."

Seth walked away still protesting, but Paul wasn't letting go of him. That left only me in the yard with my old boyfriend and my cousin. I was annoyed that he hadn't sent Quil straight to his grandfather and his imprint and let me take the little boys home.

Emily kissed Sam once more and slipped back inside the house.

"You okay, Leah?" Sam asked me, all traces of alpha timbre gone from his voice.

I shrugged and kicked at a clump of snow with the toe of my shoe. "Define okay."

He nodded in understanding and gestured toward the woods. "Go for a walk with me?"

I shrugged again and followed him. He slowed enough that we ended up walking side by side.

"Don't you want to be with Emily right now?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest defensively. "You don't have to babysit me because I don't have anyone."

"I sent your brother to your mother, Leah," he pointed out, "you have her too. I just thought maybe you could use a few minutes to clear your head. I can leave you alone, if you want."

Thinking back over everything I'd thought while we waited to find out if the Italian vampires were going to kill us all, I wondered what it was that made Sam think I didn't want to go home just yet. "You don't have to go," I told him, knowing that he needed time to clear his head as much, if not more, than I did. "Will Emily be mad?"

"No, of course not."

He was right. She would understand. She'd understand because she had no other choice. And I could tell from the tone of his voice that he hated the idea as much as I did.

"I've managed to rationalize myself into being happy that so many vampires being around made so many of the younger boys start phasing," Sam said, apparently needing to say what was on his mind.

Glancing at him as we walked, I scoffed. "And what's your rationalization for that?"

He grimaced before he answered. "That they're too young to have fallen in love yet. That, now that they've phased, the first and only girl they love will be the one they're meant to spend a lifetime with."

"That's not rational, Sam," I argued bluntly, "that's jealousy."

Laughing shortly, he nodded. "You're probably right. After your… break from me, when you guarded the Cullens, are you any… better?"

I stopped walking and turned to face him. I looked into his deep, dark eyes for a long minute before I spoke,

"_I hold it true, whate'er befall;  
I feel it, when I sorrow most;  
'Tis better to have loved and lost  
Than never to have loved at all."_

"Did you just recite poetry to answer my question?" he asked, a small smile trying to come through his eyes.

"Lord Tennyson," I answered proudly. "My mom used to recite it all the time. And it is the answer to your question. Yes, it hurts that I can't love you anymore because you love someone else. But I'm not sorry I loved you once, not anymore. Are you sorry you loved me?"

"Only because loving you hurt you in the end." He watched me intently for a minute, and I was transported back in time to when he used to look at me like that. To my shock, it didn't hurt to have him look at me that way. "But no, I'm not sorry about the time we had together. Not one bit."

With his worries assuaged as best as they would ever be, I turned the conversation to something else that had been on my mind. "You should quit phasing soon. Have a family with Emily, work on giving the entire tribe a better future."

"With a pack this size?" he asked doubtfully. "They need a leader and I don't think Jacob will be very focused."

I shrugged and leaned against a tree. "It'll take time to stop, any way you look at it. And think about it this way, Jacob's never going to be able to stop phasing. He'll always be able to lead a pack if there needs to be one." I took a deep breath and spit out the rest of what I had to stay before I chickened out. "I'll keep phasing until the idiot bloodsuckers get around to defeating the Volturi once and for all. That way Jacob can go where the Cullens go and I'll stay here to protect the tribe."

"Why would you offer to do that, Leah?" he asked, falling back into his old nickname for me. "You hate this life."

"I know, but you, and loving you, taught me a lot about myself. I know now that this world is about more than just me. I have my role to play. It might hurt to play it, but it's best to play it."

Sam hugged me then, for the first time since he told me he loved Emily. It felt good to be in his arms again. "You've grown up, Leelee," he whispered, resting his chin on my head. "I guess we all have."

"Mm-hmm," I hummed in agreement, my arms wrapped around him. "It sucks."


	7. Fight fire with fire

**Don't own it.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Fight fire with fire.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Paul**  
Rating: **K**

_Really, Clearwater? You're just going to run right into Forks, are you? Don't think that'll raise any eyebrows?_

I growled at Paul as menacingly as I could. _I'm not going to Forks, you ass. Sam explained all the rules to me._

_And then apparently got tired of you_, he countered, _and pawned you off on me._

I shrugged my shoulders, momentarily distracted that I could do that even as a wolf. _Maybe he's punishing you?_

Paul shrugged his own shoulders in return. _Maybe. Anyway, let's get back to work. Try phasing back to human again without going right back to wolf. Stay human for a few minutes._

It was easier said than done and I told him so with a string of choice words that he irritatingly ignored. I did manage to phase back to human, and then I was a wolf again. _Damn it! I did this better when Sam was helping me, _I shouted, not caring if Paul didn't need me to shout or not. _Where is he?_

_Helping Seth. Want me to get Jared or Jacob to help you instead?_

As annoying as he was, Paul really did seem to mean well. I didn't have the temperament to deal with that, though, so I marched right along with my annoyed anger. _What? And tear Jake away from his precious leech lover? No, thank you._

_I'll take that to mean you're glad Sam's helping your little brother who, whether you admit it or not, you care about very much. _Paul walked back and forth in front of me, swishing his dark silver tail back and forth. _Whatever, Leah. Do what you need to do. Figure out a goal and work toward it._

_You sound like an idiot when you're trying to teach me things, _I muttered as I decided my goal would be simply to stay human long enough to put on clothes, and then phase back and destroy them.

_And you sound like an idiot when you make goals like that, _he argued. _Come on, Leah. Think about it._

I do. I think hard. And then it hits me. My father's funeral is in exactly eighteen hours and I can't stay human long enough to… do anything. _Help me, Paul, _I begged him pitifully. _I have to be there tomorrow._

_I got you, Clearwater, _he said, weirdly comforting. _You'll be at the funeral, no doubt. After all, you're damn stubborn enough to fight for whatever you want until you get it._

I nodded and let his words sink in and calm me down. _Fight fire with fire, and all that crap, _I said more to myself than to him.

_What?_

I don't know if he meant to make me calm down by making me explain myself, but it worked. Kind of. _Think about it, Lahote. Use your brain; I know it's hard, but you can do it. Fight fire with fire. If someone screws you over, screw them over back. Harder._

_So what? The fact that you can now transform into a wolf, and the fact that it screwed you, means that you're going to be the best damn wolf you can be? _he asked me.

_Hell yeah, _I declared. _Aren't you?_

He nodded his giant head and winked at me. _You better believe it, girl. Now come on, phase again. I'll do it with you. Focus on me and don't let yourself go wolf again until I do. That's the goal._

The challenge was laid down and I intended to best it.

And I did.

I phased to human and stood there, staring at Paul's naked body while he stared at me. I didn't care if he saw my boobs or any other part of my body because I was completely focused on making sure that the trembling in my hands didn't spread over the rest of my body. I would not be a wolf before Paul was. It was not an option.

_Ha! _I crowed proudly when I was a wolf again, a half-second after him.

_Never doubted you, Clearwater, _he said, praising me in his subtle, blunt way before setting out to train me some more.

Just under a day and a half later, Paul sat next to me at my father's funeral. My mother was between me and my brother, and Sam was next to Seth. There was no escaping the fact that I killed my father. Even if I didn't mean to do it, and I didn't, he died because I lost my temper and turned into a wolf. The only way I could ever forgive myself, to believe that he could forgive me was to make him proud of me.

I hadn't done that while he was alive, so I'd have to do it when he wasn't.

I would be the best damn werewolf in the pack. I would take care of my mother and my brother. Even if it killed me.

I held on through the funeral and escaped into the woods as soon as it was over. Sam told me to go, and come back when I could because people were going to wonder where I was. Paul followed me into the woods and phased a second after I did.

_You okay? _he asked, and I could tell that he was genuinely sorry for my loss. _With the funeral and the phasing, I mean._

_I didn't phase during the funeral, _I said, not answering the question at all, _so I suppose I'm a-okay._

_Not what I meant, Clearwater, _he retorted. _But you're you, so I'll take it._

_Good, because that's all you're getting, _I snapped back. _Now teach me how to be a wolf without killing my other parent. Please._

Paul nodded and we went back to work.

I made it back to the house before anyone who didn't know what I was thought it was too terribly odd that I hadn't shown up to the after-funeral food thing.

And when my mom went to bed, I went back to the woods.

What I'd said to Paul was right, fighting fire with fire was the only option. I would do this. I would.

I wouldn't let anything stop me.

I owed it to my pack brothers and to my father.


	8. The road to hell is paved with good inte

**I do not own this.**

**ALERT:** If you haven't seen _Breaking Dawn Part 2_, DO NOT READ THIS! It contains a spoiler-y type thing or two. Your welcome. ;-)

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **The road to hell is paved with good intentions.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Rosalie**  
Rating: **K**

I did not expect to see Blondie sitting on the beach.

"I'm still in our territory," she said as soon as she saw me.

I shrugged and flopped onto the cold sand, not that it bothered my stupidly high body temperature. "Whatever. We're all buddy-buddy since the Italian creeps left, aren't we?"

"I suppose," she agreed. "I can leave, if you want."

"Free country," I replied shortly. "And you're downwind, so I'm good. Feel free to leave if my scent is bothering you, though."

She shrugged this time and brushed at some sand on her bare leg. "Jacob and your brother are around so much that, much to my dismay, I'm getting used to it."

"I'd tell Seth to stick closer to home but, well, I kind of like the quiet when he's pestering you lee— people," I said, correcting myself, "to be totally honest. After all, he's pestered me for fifteen years. I'm totally good with sharing the wealth."

Blondie laughed. "I had two little brothers when I was… in my old life," she said, stuttering over how to say it. "And now I've had Edward for seventy-three years. I know what you mean, but I win in the annoying brother category."

"Holy shit, seventy-three years of Edward," I muttered, amazed that she didn't have him in pieces yet. "Wait, I thought Seth told me once, not that I cared or wanted to hear it, that Edward was turned in 1901 and you were turned in 1933."

"That's true, but he's eternally seventeen and I'm eternally eighteen so I've got him beat by a year. Besides, he's still Edward. Always and forever. And you know that trumps all brothers."

I had to agree, as much I hated agreeing with a leech about anything. "Too bad Seth and Edward have that little bromance going on," I pointed out. "For you, anyway, since Edward will never come to La Push and your… parents have told Seth to spend as much time at your house as his cute little heart desires."

Blondie snorted ungracefully, something I hadn't thought possible for her. "Doesn't your mother miss your brother?" she asked, and I couldn't miss the hope in her voice.

"If she does, she hasn't said anything to me. You know, when your kids turn into wolves, you'd probably want to spend most of your time with your all human boyfriend, the one who doesn't know his daughter's a vampire, too," I pointed out.

"Touché," she agreed. Pointing a long, pale finger at the horizon line, she looked at me. "Is that James Island?"

I nodded.

"The Quileute chiefs are buried there? Are they still?"

I nodded again. "Tribe got special permission from the government for that," I elaborated.

"This is probably a stupid, personal question, but I have no shame," she admitted, "so I'm going to ask it anyway; your father wasn't a chief, but is he buried there?"

I blinked, pretending it was the wind and salt that made my eyes water. "Yeah, he is. The cemetery on the rez is full so people are buried in a section of the cemetery in Forks now. Billy didn't want my dad so close to, well, you. So he gave up his place on James Island for him. After all, my dad might not be dead if, well, you weren't here."

Blondie's quiet for a long time, but she surprises me when she does speak. "I'm sorry."

It was good that the she didn't say more. Simple and to the point meant a lot more than a whole bunch of flowery words that were obviously rehearsed and overly sincere.

"Yep, now I've just got my mom. I really should be nicer to her." Then it was my turn to ask her a question. "What did Cryst— your sister see happen at the confrontation with the Italians?"

"Four people died on our side," she said quietly. "Carlisle, Jasper, your brother, and you."

Somehow it didn't surprise me that I died, but I still had to ask. "How? For me, and Seth, anyway."

"The little blonde girl that causes pain," she explained, knowing Jacob had briefed us on who was who and could do what, "she hurt your brother enough that it killed him. You fought harder, more recklessly, after that. You died saving Esme."

If there was a vampire that was worth dying for, it was the fussy mother hen vampire. She was… nice. Too nice to die, especially after her husband died. Any idiot, myself included, could see how much she lived for him. "My poor mother," I murmured, hoping the crash of the waves kept my words from Blondie's ears.

It didn't. "Very much. So you'd better be nicer to her," she counseled me.

"Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions," I finished for her.

"Exactly," she agreed. "My mother, my human mother, always said that to me. I never listened."

I huffed a short laugh and nodded. "I don't either. But I should. I mean to be nicer, more appreciative, and I'm going to. Or at least I'll try. You should too, Blon— Rosalie."

"What do you mean?" she demanded, letting my accidental slip slide.

"Think about it, or you'll prove all Jacob's idiotic jokes right." She clearly still didn't get it, so I explained. "By saying 'my human mother', you just admitted that you think of Mrs. Cullen as your mother now. Five bucks says you think of Dr. Fang— Cullen as your father, but you're less likely to admit that so we'll all just keep our money. You're not very nice to them," I pointed out bluntly. "Maybe you should be. Especially if someone 'died' in the vision."

"I'll try," she said vaguely.

"Try hard. I do occasionally listen to Seth and, I don't know where he heard it all, but he said that you resent Dr. Cullen for changing you. Get over it," I snapped. "Like you said, it's been seventy-three years. Get. Over. It."

When she didn't respond, I kept talking. Maybe I was talking to myself, but I wanted her to hear me. "Do you know the last thing I said to my father was? I said I hated him. I said I hated him, then I turned into a wolf, then he had a heart attack, then he died.

"You know I don't like vampires, but I wouldn't wish that, those last words, on my worst enemy. I wouldn't wish them on you. Get over it. Tell him you love him, tell him you're sorry. Just don't be like me."


	9. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Esme**  
Rating: **K**

The realization that I'm getting used to the smell of bloodsuckers makes me look out said bloodsuckers' glass wall to see if pigs are flying. They aren't, so I decide it must be hell freezing over. After all, I am spending an inappropriate amount of time at their house. So hell it is.

If only I could trust Seth to _not_ trust the leeches, I could stay away. But no, my brother is head over heels in love with the things we are meant to kill, literally kill. If only my mother hadn't fallen in love with a poor, completely in the dark regular old human who happens to have a vampire for a daughter, I could stay away. But no.

My mom is the reason I spend so much time at the Cullen lair. I won't leave her with them unprotected and I don't trust Seth to be on guard. Jacob's here more than we are, but he's worse than useless when Baby Vamp so much as passes gas. So I stay.

Edward's usually too busy making googly at his nutty, newborn wife to listen to my thoughts, not that I care if he does or not. I hope he hears some of it.

"Leah?"

I spin around and find the vampire mother hen standing at the other end of the glass wall, which is really the other side of the house. "What?" I reply ungraciously. "Am I in the way of something?"

She shakes her head and takes a step backward. "No, not at all. I just wanted to tell you that you're free to use the computers or books we have while you're here. I know you don't like to eat here, but you must be bored just standing there all the time."

Oddly, I don't feel like she's telling me I look pathetic standing here all the time. I feel like she's actually inviting me to make use of all the stuff she's accumulated ... because she wants to be nice. "Thanks," I say, earning shocked glances from her, my mother, Charlie, Seth, Jacob, Edward, Bella, the blonde girl, and her twin– I don't know where the doctor, the big guy, or the little vampire are. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to look around."

"You feelin' okay, Leah?" Seth asks slowly, and I ignore him.

I stay where I am but I keeping ignoring him just the same. After all, I can't rush right into making nice with my very literal mortal enemy. I give it a few minutes, give Seth and Jacob time to go back to staring at the television like the morons that they are, and then I take a step toward the inner parts of the vamps' lair.

It looks like something Martha Stewart might design, only in a less annoying way. That thought is weird because it was designed by a vampire and I find Martha Stewart only mildly less annoying than vampires.

But the vampire mother hen said to make myself at home, so I do. I open doors and I peer into closets. My stupid nose fails me, though, when I open a door to what is an art studio place of some sort and the least offensive vampire in the bunch is inside. "Sorry," I say, already backing out.

"I don't mind if you come in," she tells me, "but I understand if you don't want to, or can't."

It's a challenge I accept, because I'm in the mood to have one, so I step inside. "Are you, like, an artist?" I ask as I look over the piles of sketchbooks, tablets, papers, paints, brushes, photos, and finished pictures that cover the room – it really is one of the messiest I've seen in the house, and I like it.

"I wish," she says, laughing softly. "Architecture and design are things I like. I try my best at them."

"So this is like your sanctuary then?"

She nods, seeming happy that I called it that. "Yes, but please don't think that means I want you to leave. Do you have a sanctuary where you can be whatever you want?"

She seems nervous when she asks, but I ignore it and, to my own surprise, answer her. "No. It seems pointless to find one when a dozen annoying boys can see everything you think about. I did used to like to draw my dream houses, though."

There's a sketchbook in front of me before I can blink. "Please, Leah," she tells me, "use anything here you like. I can help you, if you want, or we can work separately or you can take things home with you."

For lack of anything better to do with myself, I sit down at a desk and stare at the blank page. When no inspiration automatically occurs to me, I look around the room some more. On the wall above the desk is an engraved wood carving. I know the words too well; they're ones my mom has in a cross-stitch on her kitchen wall.

_Fools rush in where angels fear to tread._

Should I be in a house full of vampires, making use of one of the bloodsucker's art supplies? Probably not.

Am I an angel? No. Am I a fool? Probably.

Besides, angels shouldn't fear to tread anywhere. They should be strong and sure, not like fools.

"That phrase is backwards, Mrs… Es…" I announce, stumbling over what to call her.

"Esme," she tells me shyly. "I know it is. Fools are ordinary, aren't they? They're real, they fear. Angels are something special. They aren't supposed to be affected by ordinary things like fear, are they?"

I shake my head and ask her something incredibly personal. "Are you a fool, or an angel?"

"Oh, definitely a fool," she says softly. "There are things I'm terrified of, and still I rush right into them."

"Like inviting me into your sanctuary?" I ask.

"I have respect for you, Leah, and for what you could do to me if you wanted. Respect is different than fear."

"I like being a fool," I admit, agreeing implicitly with everything she said. I play with the charcoal pencil in my hand and get an idea of what to draw. "Maybe this is rushing in, but I like it. Will you help me?"

The leech, Esme, smiles and exhales in relief. "Of course. Anytime."


	10. Mind over matter

**I don't own a word of this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Mind over matter.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Billy**  
Rating: **K**

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Billy sneezed powerfully. Instead, I yelped an appropriate, "Holy crap!"

"Most people bless someone who sneezes, Leah," he said, dabbing at his nose with a handkerchief.

"Yeah, well, I'm not most people," I reminded him. I stuck my hand into a box of what could only be described as 'stuff' and tried not to breathe in the dust. "How did your house get so dusty anyway?"

"Sarah died, the girls moved away, I ended up in this chair, Jake's a boy… all that stuff," he explained, sneezing into his handkerchief that time. "Thanks for helping me sort through the junk and see if there's anything worthwhile here."

I shrugged my shoulders and eyed what seemed to be nothing more than a really, really old half a PopTart suspiciously. "When I told Jake I said I'd help you, he was more than happy to let me out of patrol. He probably didn't want to have to help clean," I added with a laugh. "Where's Rachel, though? This may be an important PopTart to her, since it's in a box with her name on it."

Billy shook his head and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how the kids survived after Sarah died," he said sadly. "If it weren't for your parents looking after them and Charlie looking after me, I don't know if any of us would've survived."

"Hey, now," I cautioned him, "I signed up for a walk down one very dusty memory lane, not some mopey, weepy meander through a minefield of memories. If you want that, I'll be back in an hour after you get it out of your system."

"Sorry, Leah, I didn't mean to go there." He cleared his throat and leaned forward to look through the box of papers I'd declared he had to sort through because some of them looked possibly important – at some point in the last decade or two. "Rachel's got a job interview at the school in Forks. She'll be back to help in a bit."

I tried not to be bitter over the fact that Rachel got to get a get a regular job, and have a family, and be normal. I tried, but it didn't always work. After all, her brother turned into a wolf; couldn't she or Rebecca have been like me? Was that too much to ask?

"I'll keep the PopTart for her to decide if it's worth keeping," I declared to deflect Billy's attention, and my own, from my quickly souring mood.

We worked in silence for the next few minutes. I threw away less offensive things than the PopTart; Rachel deserved to be confronted with a suspiciously fresh looking snack, at least in place of an angry wolf-girl. Billy tried to make sense of the papers for a while, but eventually gave up and wheeled himself to the refrigerator, handing me a can of soda and keeping one for himself. "Paul'll be home soon too, better drink it while we can," he said, taking a long swallow of his while I wiped off the top of my can with the hem of my shirt. "How're you doing, Leah?"

His serious question caught me off-guard and I paused with my can halfway to my mouth. "Doing with what?"

He looked away, avoiding my eyes, but answered. "You know; the packs, Sam and Emily, the vampires, your mom, Charlie? All that stuff?"

It wasn't hard to figure out what he was carefully not asking. I was a wolf, I'd lost the man I loved to my cousin, I had to not kill the vampires, and my mom had found love with my dead father's best friend. How was I indeed?

"In the order that you mentioned stuff; it sucks, I'll deal, I still hate vampires, and I'm glad my mom found happiness. I'm worried about her, though, since she can't tell Charlie the half of the story he doesn't know." I bought time drinking half my soda, and narrowed my eyes at him. "It'd be easier if your idiot son hadn't phased in front of him just so the leeches could stay in town. And I know Jake phasing means Jake stays here too with the spawn, but I don't care about that. I care about my mom and my brother, and even Charlie."

"I worry about that too, Leah, about your mom and Charlie. And I know Jacob shouldn't have phased in front of Charlie," he agreed reluctantly, "and I told him so. I'm glad you're willing to fight so hard for your mother, your brother, and even Charlie."

"Why?" I asked, never able to just take a compliment.

"Everybody needs someone to fight for them, Leah. Your dad would be proud of you for what you just said to me. I know you think he and I were jealous of the ones who can phase, and maybe we were, but I don't think we ever wanted it for our children. He especially wouldn't have wanted it for you, his daughter. He loved you, and he knew that if something ever happened to him, you'd be there for Sue and Seth."

I snorted derisively. "I bet he didn't count on me killing him."

"No," Billy admitted openly. "He didn't count on that. But you have to stop thinking like that. You'll never be able to do things for your family and for yourself at the same time if you don't… maybe not forgive yourself, but accept it for what it is."

I snorted again, it seemed only appropriate. "For what it is? For the fact that since my father had the wolf gene and my mother had two of them, it was fate that I flip out on my mother and phase in front of my father? No thanks. I've accepted enough fate."

"You can't ever stop accepting fate, Leah. It's not possible, and believe me, I tried. When Sarah died, I tried so hard not accept it." He stopped talking for a minute and wiped the handkerchief over his eyes – I'd never seen him cry, but his voice was shaky when he started talking again. "It won't be easy, Leah, but if you set your mind to it, you can learn to work with everything that's happened to you. Everything."

"What, like 'mind over matter' and all that crap?" I asked glumly.

"Yeah, all that crap," he confirmed almost as glumly. "Try it, Leah, what can it hurt?"

I finished the rest of my soda, tossed the can into the recycling bin, and stuck my hand back into my box. "Exactly, what can it hurt? How could I possibly hurt more than I already do?" Seeing him squirm a little in his wheelchair, I tried to smile. "I'll try, Billy, really I will. I promise."

He nodded and went back to his own box.


	11. The grass is always greener on the other

**I don't own this.**

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **The grass is always greener on the other side.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Jacob**  
Rating: **K**

* * *

"Don't talk to me."

"Leah, I—"

"I said don't," I snap icily. "I don't care, Jacob. Whatever you're going to say, I don't care. I don't want to hear it. Don't talk to me."

He takes a step backward when I growl at him. "I'm sorry, alright," he says, holding his hands up in peace. "That's all I want to say. I'll go."

And he goes.

Probably right back to the spawn of the girl he loves and the vampire she loves.

Some idiot told us all that, since we can phase, we will protect the imprints of our pack brothers. Maybe so. But protecting them is not the same as liking them and I don't like her, or any of them really.

Maybe I'm a bitter fool.

Maybe I'm jealous that some of us get to have imprints and I don't.

I could work with that.

What I am not, definitely not, is upset that Jacob imprinting on the spawn means he's not leaving town and staying wolf, and I can't go away with him.

I'd have chickened out of that anyway.

I'm not sure what I'm so furious about.

Maybe it's just another blow to the old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side.

My mom used to tell me that all the time.

If I got sick, if I got in a fight with my friends, if I got annoyed with my brother, if I got mad at her and my dad, if I had a fight with my boyfriend… she always said it. "Leah, the grass is always greener on the other side."

What the hell does that mean anyway?

That life may suck now, but wait long enough all the crap will be coming up roses?

Thanks, but I'd rather just wallow in the misery that is life sucking right now.

Does that make me a masochist? A lot of people seem to think so, although they're probably evenly divided on the debate of whether I'm a masochist or a sadist.

I don't mean to make people miserable. People think I like making them miserable, that I like being miserable. I don't.

I really, really, really don't.

In fact, I hate it.

Maybe I have something in common with the spawn. Hell, maybe I am a spawn.

After all, there hasn't ever been anything like her and there hasn't ever been anything like me.

A tiny part of me, maybe a large and spiteful part of me, hopes that she's as miserable one day as I am now.

But she won't be. She has a happy, immortal family who adore. She has parents who seem to think she literally hung the damn moon just because she was born without totally, literally killing her mother. She has Jacob who will die for her if need be, and otherwise give her the world.

So we may have the spawn thing in common, but that's where it ends.

Sure, I've got a family. My dad died when I turned into a wolf. That means I killed him. Then again, he and my mom both knew that Seth, at least, would turn and didn't think I needed to know that little nugget of helpful information. Not even after Sam dumped me for Emily, mind you.

But I digress. My parents, now just the one, love me. Adore might be too strong a word, to be honest. My tribe generally seems to like me alright, or at least they did until I started phasing. But I'll never have a Jacob, or a Sam, Paul, Jared, Quil…

That's another thing I'm tired of, another thing that makes me lose my mind.

I don't care if maybe when I quit phasing I'll get my period again and be able to have a baby. It doesn't matter if that grass is green. What matters is the now. And the now says that I'm a genetic dead end.

I don't want to be told otherwise.

Enough.

I'm not a heartless shrew.

But I don't know if I have it in me to convince anyone of that.

I suppose the only thing to do is try.

I push myself to my feet and wipe the dirt off my hands and onto my denim skirt. Then, thinking better of it, I drop my skirt to the forest floor and pull my tank top of my head. My instinct says Jacob will be in wolf form and I like having conversations better that way. I can run my heart out and pretend I'm not having a serious conversation. We can even be miles apart.

It's as impersonal as having a mental conversation with someone will ever be.

_I'm sorry too_, I call out to him, having sensed him immediately. _I just don't want people to tell me that things will get better, that it'll miraculously be okay. So just… don't do that, okay?_

_Okay, I won't. If I slip, though, and start to, just tell me to shut up, okay? Don't sit on it and stew. I don't want you to go through that every time someone says something to you._

It's strangely, really, that he said that because that's exactly what I've wanted people to say to me for months. _Thanks, Jake. I know you heard what I just thought, but I'll say it officially. I promise to tell you if something's bothering me. And I'll even try to be nice about it._

I hear his snort of laughter with my ears and my mind.

_I'll believe that when I see it_, he declares. _You have to get back or do you want to go for a run?_

_Not run, race_, I clarify for him. _To the Makah rez and back. Last one back gets to make Seth do his homework for a week._

_He's your brother, that's not even fair_, Jacob protests.

_Five second head start? _I offer and, when he grunts in agreement, I give a bark to tell him to go.

I win easily and feel a little bit more like there's at least a faint hope of green grass when I reach my house, ready to tell my brother that Jacob is his study-buddy for the week.


	12. Ignorance is bliss

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Ignorance is bliss.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Bella**  
Rating: **K**

_Do you promise me that you're on your way_?

I sighed and typed out an answer to my mother's text message as I drove. _Yes, Mom, I promise. You told me I was not allowed to miss Charlie's surprise party, so I won't. Besides, I like him._

Charlie Swan, my stepfather, was turning 50 and my mother was throwing him a surprise party. I didn't know if a surprise party for a man whose daughter was a vampire and whose stepkids turned into giant wolves was necessarily the best idea, but he was her husband so who was I to say.

Her reply text came fast. _Good. Thank you. Seth and I are picking up some last minute things so only Bella and her family will be at the house when you get there. You can stall until we get back or go there now. Just please don't lose your temper with her. It would upset Charlie._

It would upset Charlie. Of course it would. I wasn't an idiot, even though the idea of stalling did have its attractive qualities. But I remembered the cake sitting on the front seat next to me and knew it would start to melt soon. So I went to the place I knew my super sparkly stepsister would be.

There was no car in front of the white house, though, so I let myself in. That's when I smelled Bella, but only her. "Where's the rest of the sleepless beauties?" I called out as I stashed the cake in the fridge.

"Edward took Nessie to hunt and Jacob went to pick up Billy," Bella replied from just behind me. "Thanks for coming today, Leah, even though you knew I'd be here."

"Hey, I'm not here for you," I assured her bluntly, not wanting anything to think that. "I'm here because it means something to my mother and because I like Charlie and he likes me. In fact, he thanked me just the other day for coming around more than you do."

She was momentarily flustered, but reorganized herself quick enough. "We can't come around that much, Leah, or someone could see me. Charlie understands that."

"What lies you feed your father are none of my business as long as they don't affect me, my brother, or my mother," I said, interrupting her. "So don't get any screwball ideas that I'm trying to take your place as Charlie's precious daughter. I'm not. He was my father's best friend and he loves my mother. That's it."

"Why do you hate me, Leah?" she demanded. "Is it because I'm a vampire? Do you blame me for what happened to your father? Are you jealous that my father is still here?"

Remembering my mother's plea, I swallowed the overwhelming urge to snarl. "Don't flatter yourself, leech," I hissed in reply. "Sam changed for the first time before you ever set foot in Forks. Jared and Paul did it around the time you came. The bloodsuckers you love so dearly were already here, already ruining my life when you still thought vampires slept at night and could be kept away with garlic and wooden stakes and silver bullets.

"We should be so lucky. But no, precious Bella, I don't blame you. In fact, I don't give you any credit for it. I suppose I do blame you for disappearing just in time for his funeral so not only did my family get to deal with a death and two kids who could become wolves, the one person who could really have helped my mom – Charlie – was distracted by the fact that you'd run off to Italy to save a vampire.

"I'm not even going to dignify that jealous question with answer, by the way.

"What I will say is that, yes, I probably do hate you because you're a vampire. I am genetically pre-disposed to kill vampires, you know. That urge hasn't gone away just because Jacob fell for your freak of nature kid.

"More than that, though, I probably hate you because I'm a vindictive, angry bitch. That's what everybody says about me, right?"

I was so mad at myself for losing it. I didn't care that she looked like she was about to cry, if she could have. I cared that I'd been so good at keeping control of my temper since the Cullens moved away from Forks when people got suspicious of them. To lose it at Bella really wasn't worth it.

I left her still looking like she was still on the verge of tears and stormed out of the house. I needed to go for a run as a wolf – I'd decided to keep phasing until my mother wasn't around vampires with regularity – and get ahold of myself.

Luck was not on my side, because Embry was in wolf form and I was immediately connected to his mind.

_I'm not in a good mood_, I warned him.

_I don't care. It's been too quiet around here lately. If you want to talk or scream, go ahead. Or I can phase back and leave you alone_, he offered.

The fight had gone out of me somehow and I just sighed deeply. _Thanks, Embry. I'll be alright. I just wish… I guess I wish I didn't know what I know. Know what I mean?_

He hummed his agreement. _Yep, sure do. Ignorance is bliss._

Ignorance is bliss. There wasn't any better way to say it.

I thanked him for the insight I'd forgotten and turned back toward the scene of my tantrum. Ignorance was bliss, but bliss was out of my reach. Probably forever.

All I could do was go hang around my supernatural family and be insanely jealous of the people who were unknowingly blissful.

Naturally, Bella was waiting outside when I got back. I could smell her husband and daughter, and my brother and mother, in the air as I put my clothes back on. "I mean every word I said," I told her before she could say anything to me, "but I shouldn't have said it all to you."

She nodded. "We're never going to be close friends, Leah, but I think we both love our shared family enough that we can figure out how to get along, don't you?"

I pursed my lips and nodded once in agreement. I could do that. I could pretend I didn't know what Bella and her husband were. I could do that for my family. And maybe, in the end, I'd trick myself into thinking that my faked ignorance was real bliss.


	13. When life gives you lemons, make lemonad

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Kim**  
Rating: **K**

Someone had invaded my space.

It was a public beach, of course, but I thought I was the only one who went there before dawn. The boys were usually busy sleeping or eating, occasionally both, and it was too cold there in December for any normal, human Quileute people to venture out there.

But someone was there.

I ran my hand through my short hair and peeked around a tree to see who it was.

Kim.

And she was crying.

Of course she was crying.

Me, the person allergic to tears, the person who avoided having to comfort people at all costs… of course I found someone crying.

I briefly debated going to get my mother or Emily, but my conscience ate away at me and I stepped out of the tree line. "Uh, Kim," I called out hesitantly, "you okay?"

She jumped a mile, but settled herself back down quickly. "I'm fine, Leah," she half whimpered, half whined.

I cringed and took another couple steps forward. "Then why are you crying?" I asked, trying to temper my voice so it didn't sound quite so much like I was demanding an answer.

She breathed through her nose wetly. "I'm not crying," she protested.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, summoning all the patience I had in me. "Fine, you're not crying," I agreed, letting her have that if she needed it so much. "What are you doing out here before dawn? You're going to freeze. Hey, maybe that's what makes me think you're crying. You know, tears and snot caused by the cold come before you freeze to death."

"Okay," she sniffled in defeat. "I'm crying. But you don't have to talk to me."

My eyes flicked back and forth between her and the rez, where I knew people better equipped than me to deal with her were. "Where's Jared?" I asked, knowing chances were that he didn't do anything.

"Patrol with Brady and one of the kids," she sniffled again. "He didn't do anything wrong."

I sat down on the other end of the driftwood log from her and sighed. "Alright, if Jared's out on patrol and he didn't do anything wrong, why are you out here before dawn not crying?" When she didn't answer right away, I made to stand up. "Do you want me to get Emily?"

With surprising strength, her hand shot out and she yanked me back onto the log. "No, don't go get her. She just tells us that everything's going to work out and be fine. What if it's not, Leah? What if Jared doesn't come home when the Italian vampires come after the Cullens? What if he dies? I can't live without him?"

I should've figured it was something like this. We had to be in wolf form in a day and a half to wait and see if we had to fight and die. I knew my mom was worried, but I'd never really considered how it would be for the imprints.

That meant I had no idea what to say to Kim.

As I sat there, trying to figure out what to say to her, it dawned on me that maybe it wasn't so bad not to have imprinted on someone after all. If I didn't come home one day, there wouldn't be anyone left to mourn me that way. I realized too that I was kind of glad, in a teeny tiny way, that Sam hadn't imprinted on me or I'd be the one on the beach worry about if he didn't come home and if I could live without him. Emily might have been telling the imprints that everything was going to be fine, but I knew she knew enough that she was mostly trying to convince herself of that by telling them.

After all, Sam was going to put himself before the rest of us.

"I'm sorry, Leah," Kim said softly, breaking me out of my reverie. "Here I am complaining to you when all I'll be doing is sitting at home worrying and you'll actually be there. Are you scared?"

"Scared of dying?" I replied even softer than she'd spoken. "No. If I do, I do."

"You're not scared at all?" she asked, scooting closer to me.

"I didn't say that," I laughed shortly. "Of course I'm scared. What I'm most scared of is Seth dying. I don't want to have to come home to my mom without him."

"He doesn't want to have to come home without you either, Leah," Kim reminded me, "so don't protect him to death if there's a fight. You both have to come home, all of you have to come home."

"That's the idea," I said firmly.

Then, inexplicably, Kim laughed. When she saw the have-you-lost-your-mind look I was giving her, she blushed. "Sorry, I just remembered a stupid staying that my grandmother always used to tell me."

"Yeah, what's that?" I asked gamely.

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," she recited. "It's stupid, but I suppose it fits. I mean, the Italian vampires are like the lemons, right? So it's like we just have to get through it and there's our lemonade. I'm sorry, that sounded slightly less stupid in my head."

I bumped against her shoulder and shook my head. "No, I like it. It kind of reorganizes the perspective. What's going to happen is just an annoyance, a sour one, that we have to get through to get the sweet lemonade. Thanks, Kim." I laughed when she looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "Seriously. It's not so scary when you think of it in terms of lemons and lemonade."

She hugged me then, and I hugged her back – in part to warm up her ice cold body. "It's okay, Leah," she said in a whisper, "I won't tell anyone you just admitted that you're really scared."

I blamed the stinging in my eyes on the cold air and raging ocean, but I knew it was tears.

I was scared.

So I sat on that log and hugged her, and let her hug me.

It didn't make things better, but it helped.


	14. Out of sight, out of mind

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Out of sight, out of mind.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Edward**  
Rating: **K**

I made a point of never thinking things directly to Edward Cullen. He saw enough of my mind, he didn't need to have me talk _to_ him without thinking. For a while, I tried to think only of things that would make him uncomfortable. When he told me that I was boring compared to some of the things he heard, I growled at him and walked away.

What she-wolf wants to be told by a vampire that she's boring?

Not this one.

And since I'm the only one, not any one.

Since that day, I tried to avoid Edward at all costs so it was just my luck to stumble onto him in the woods as I ran home, in wolf form, from keeping watch over my mother at the vampire's house. _Sorry_, I thought, breaking my own rule. _Just passing through._

He shrugged his shoulders. "Don't hurry on my own account, I'm only sitting here."

Half of my brain told me to keep running, the other half was curious enough to consider having a conversation with him. After all, I'd never been one-on-one with a vampire before and, like the so-called father of the coven, Edward seemed like a die-hard pacifist.

_If you're out here to be alone, won't my thoughts disrupt your peace and quiet?_

He shrugged again. "Maybe. I hope I don't insult you again, Leah," he said with a wry laugh, "but as much as you try to make your mind seem… vengeful and harsh, it really isn't."

My lip curled instinctively, but the snarl I let out was weak at best.

"Good, I wasn't too insulting," he said with a half-smile. "There isn't anything wrong with not being vengeful and harsh, you know. Especially not with the lot you've been dealt in life. If anyone blames you for it, they should look in a mirror more often."

I huffed in frustration over the fact that a vampire knew me so well and pawed some muddy ferns out of the way before I sat down and looked at him. _Do you ever wish you could turn it all off? You know, out of sight, out of mind and all that crap?_

"Almost every moment of every day," he said quietly. "I imagine it's much the same as the shared pack mind. Which reminds me, I don't hear anyone else; are you really the only one phased right now?"

I hadn't considered that oddity but, after a moment of quiet listening, I twitched a shrug. _Apparently so. It is kind of nice. I can only hear me right now… and you when you're talking, of course. Weird._

"Very much," Edward agreed. "Sometimes I hunt alone so I can run to the top of a mountain, where I'm too far away from everything and everyone to hear a single thing. I can almost trick myself into sleeping, I think."

Sensing that was his goal in being not terribly far from his family but still oddly alone, I sighed. _I really can leave you alone if you want_, I offered. What I couldn't figure out was why I wasn't just going. I kind of wanted to stay. _Sorry. Didn't mean to think that_, I muttered in my mind.

He shook his head and smiled. "It is nice here, isn't it? We don't have to talk, though. I'd bet you can quiet your mind enough to relax us both if you tried."

_Challenge accepted_, I told him as I got to my four feet and moved a little bit forward, closer to the edge of the stream that ran through the woods just there. It was sunny and the rocks looked oddly warm and inviting. I circled three times and folded myself onto them, resting my snout on my paw and keeping a watchful eye on Edward.

He winked at me from where he sat in the shadows and lay down on his back.

I tried to focus just on the sound of the water beside me, the scent of the breeze in the air, and the way the warm rocks lulled me into drowsiness. After a few false starts, I was almost completely zen.

I knew I was just one tiny part of a much larger picture. The water carried me through life, the breeze guided my way, and the rocks were where I came from. It all made sense in that moment.

Whether I tricked myself into a trance or fell asleep, I didn't know. What I knew was that the sun told me two hours had passed the next time I noticed it. I was pretty proud of myself.

I lay still, looking at Edward who was still on his back in front of me. His eyes were closed and he looked different. He didn't look like a vampire, like a predatory mythological creature come to life before my eyes. He looked like a kid, a kid who'd seen too much in his short and oddly crappy life.

The realization that he reminded me of my brother was startling.

I went back to thinking about the water and the breeze and the rocks before I decided he reminded me of me. _That_ was dangerous territory.

Another hour passed before Jacob's thoughts invaded mine; he was looking for Edward for Bella. I told him to shut his trap and got to my feet. Not sure how to wake a not sleeping vampire, I bumped my nose against his foot. _Duty calls. Jacob's looking for you._

His eyes popped open and he sat up with a smile on his face. "Thank you, Leah. That was perfect."

_I thought about water, wind, and rocks_, I pointed out skeptically.

Edward nodded. "Yes, but you became one with them. It was very… hypnotic. Did you relax?"

I bobbed my head once after a moment's thought. _Bet my ancestors would be pretty proud of me right now, wouldn't they?_

"I would think so," he agreed. "Anyway, I should go. But if you ever want to do that again, just let me know."

In a show of camaraderie that surprised even me, I bumped my head against his shoulder. _Once a week, at least. Don't you think?_

Having got to his feet, he grinned and scratched my neck quickly. "I'll be here."

Then he was gone and I was left to explain that exchange to a very confused Jacob Black. I felt too good to care much about what he thought.


	15. Curiosity killed the cat

**I don't own this.**

_I know I didn't reply to a few reviews left for the last chapter… I thought you'd rather have another chapter instead! Was I right? In any case, here's some more and please know that I adore every review I get!_

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Curiosity killed the cat.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Carlisle**  
Rating: **K**

Spitting milk out your nose is never, ever a good idea. It hurts more than you think it would.

I grabbed a dish towel and patted it on my chest before I wiped the milk off the marble top of the island in the Cullens' kitchen. Dr. Cullen held out his hand for the towel when I was done, so I passed it to him, totally not ashamed to be staring at him. "Did you just say you were born in the 1640s?"

He smiled wryly after putting the towel in a hamper in the laundry room. "Yes, I did. I'm not completely sure of the year because records weren't well kept for families like mine back then, but it was the early 1640s."

I blinked a few times, working that out in my head. I came to the conclusion that he had been born more than three hundred and sixty years ago. Three hundred and sixty. I blinked again. "Aside from being mind-blowing," I said slowly, very slowly, "that is freaking awesome."

The vampire surgeon seemed surprised by my reaction. "That's not usually a word I associate with it but… thank you?" he said, making it a question.

"Yes, you're welcome," I said to make sure he knew I meant it. "Seriously. Just thinking about all the stuff you lived through… I can't even... Seth rambled one day and told me you were born in England; when did you come to North America?"

"The very end of the 1700s," he replied, moving to sit on one of the stools.

"So you missed the Revolutionary War?"

"I did. Sometimes it's best for vampires, especially those who prefer not to feed on humans, to avoid battlefields at all costs so I waited to come here until after the war."

I was starting to feel like I need a pen and paper to keep track of all this. "What about during the Civil War? Did you flee to California or somewhere were there weren't battles?"

"Montana, actually." He still seemed surprised by my interest but he gamely answered my questions. "I spent that war in mining towns in what's Montana today."

"Did you really meet my people before Ephraim Black was chief in the 1930s and 40s?" When he nodded, I pressed on. "Did you meet Taha Aki or he was already dead?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I didn't meet Taha Aki. I'm not certain whether he was dead or whether he was living in the mountains in wolf form at the time. In any case, I only met the Quileutes long enough then to know that I was not welcome in the area. I was traveling alone at the time, so it was best for everyone if I moved on as quickly as possible."

I didn't really care if I was being too nosy. I loved history and there was a history book pretty much sitting across from me. To look a little less eager, I stalled and finished my glass of milk without spitting it out of my nose. "When did you get married? Or meet Esme, whichever?"

"I turned Esme into a vampire in 1921," he said, oddly vague and specific at the same time, "and we were married in 1923, after her newborn years."

I didn't really care about the vague specificity of his answer, I had more questions. "You were alone before that? No family and all that?"

"I turned Edward in 1918 but before that, yes, I was without family."

Dr. Cullen tried to make it seem like that wasn't anything but any idiot would know that two hundred and seventy-eight odd years alone was just plain sad. I'd only been alone for two years and I knew that. I also hated talking about it, so I moved my questions away from that. "Most amazing thing you've ever seen?" I asked, betting that he'd seen a lot of amazing this.

"A Siberian tiger nursing her newborn cubs on freshly fallen snow in the East Siberian taiga," he answered without even thinking about it.

"What's a taiga?" I demanded eagerly. "And you didn't eat her, did you?"

"It's a boreal forest; pine and spruce trees mostly, this one just happened to be in Siberia but much of Canada is classified as taiga and small parts of the United States." He waited until I nodded in understanding and then answered my second question. "I absolutely did not. They weren't an endangered species then, but they are far too majestic and beautiful for that."

"You make an awful lot of rules for yourself," I pointed out as I got myself more milk and thought about my next question. I heard him say quietly that he knew he did, so I moved on. "Have you met anyone I've read about in history books?"

He thought about that for a minute, probably deciding on just one person, and nodded. "Sacajawea?" I apparently gaped enough in appropriate surprise that he explained. "I traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition for part of their journey through what was then the Louisiana Territory."

Feeling a little hysterical from hearing the news, I spoke very slowly. "You. Met. Sacajawea?"

Dr. Cullen nodded and smiled. "She wasn't as much of a guide as Hollywood and modern lore would have you believe as she was an interpreter. Her husband was French and he was the guide for the group. He spoke her language and she spoke to, and was trusted, by her people and the other tribes in the area."

"Will you tell me more about her sometime?" I blurted out before I thought to stop myself. "About anything native that you know?"

"Anytime, Leah," he answered easily. "I promise."

I believed him for some reason. "Maybe you'll have to tell me about your first meeting with the Quileutes and then with Ephraim Black and I'll see if our stories match up," I laughed.

Dr. Cullen looked as young as he was supposed to be when he laughed and nodded in agreement. "I do have a perfect memory," he reminded me, winking teasingly.

In spite of myself, I grinned. "We'll talk soon. Right now, I've got patrol duties."

_Gee, Leah_, my brother greeted me as we started out patrol, _did you ask Dr. Cullen enough questions? Don't you know what they say? Curiosity killed the-_

_I'm a wolf, not a cat, dumbass_, I reminded him, _so shut up and mind your own business._

He was positively gleeful that I almost admitting to liking one of his vampires buddies. I ignored him, just like I always did.


	16. Two's company, three's a crowd

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Two's company, three's a crowd.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Emily**  
Rating: **K**

"Dude, it even smells awesome out here," Seth said with a happy sigh as he walked up to Sam and Emily's house. "I can't wait to eat."

"What is with you and eating?" Charlie said, staring wide-eyed at my brother. "Do you ever stop?"

"Oh, Charlie, just be glad you have a daughter," my mom reassured him, "because boys never stop."

I rolled my eyes and followed the three of them. More giving and self-sacrificing than anyone gave me credit for, I was very careful about eating around Charlie. I was just as hungry as Seth, but he didn't expect a girl to eat like a teenage boy, so I didn't. It didn't help that he was now comparing me to his daughter who would probably eat _him_ if he nicked himself with a filet knife near her.

"Merry Christmas Eve," Emily said happily, pulling the front door open and coming down the steps. She hugged each of us and herded us inside, where Seth had already gone in search of food. "Bella and Edward couldn't come?" she asked Charlie with the perfect poker face.

He shook his head. "No, the Cullens have family in town. She'll be at the house tomorrow, though."

"Good to hear, good to hear," Billy said as he shook Charlie's hand.

I rolled my eyes again and walked into the kitchen. Christmas Eve with my ex-boyfriend and my cousin he was going to marry and then Christmas Day with my apparently soon-to-be stepsister who happened to be a vampire. Life sucked.

The kitchen wasn't my favorite place, so I fled there pretty fast. Then I spent most of the evening sitting on the floor in a corner under the stairs coloring in Claire's coloring books. She colored with me some of the time, and sat with Quil the rest of the time. She very sweetly told me I could color when she wasn't there.

After a while, though, Emily crouched down in front of me. "I need to get some air, want to come with me?"

I didn't, but it would've been rude to say no so I said yes. In a teeny, tiny temper tantrum, I took a coloring book and a handful of crayons with me. If she rambled on about Sam and imprinting and how great it all was, I'd be able to distract myself.

I followed her to the shed Sam had built at the back of the property where she unlocked the door and went inside. Switching on a space heater, she sat down on a canvas folding chair and used her foot to point to another once. For lack of anything better to do, I sat down. "What do you want to talk about?" I asked her as I rolled the crayons around in my hand.

"What makes you think I want to talk about something?"

"Just answer the question, Emily," I said impatiently.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and picked at some threads on a rip in the knee of her jeans. "I miss us, Leah, the way we used to be. Do you think we can ever get that back?"

I didn't have to think long about my answer. "No." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her eyes water. I really didn't want to make her cry, so I tried to fix it. "You know how it was before Sam imprinted on you and I was dating him, you felt like you didn't fit in anymore, right? Well, that's how it is for me now, only worse… because I love him.

"I love you too, Em, and I'll be your maid of honor and your kids' godmother and your BFF if you want, but we can't be like we used to be. Not anymore."

"We didn't mean to hurt you, you know," she said softly.

"I know, I know," I assured her, totally fixated on the crayons. "I know you didn't. It's just… two's company, three's a crowd in the extreme, you know?"

She sniffled, and my fist clenched around the crayons. "I know," she whispered. "And I promise that asking you to be my maid of honor, my best friend, and my kids' godmother is not out of pity or because I'm trying to make all this up to you. It's because I need you, Leah."

I relaxed my fingers and swallowed hard. "I need you too, Em." I leaned to the side and hugged her tightly. "Shouldn't you talk to Sam about the godmother thing, though?"

Emily pulled back and stared at me, the scarred side of her face hidden in shadows. "I did, Leah. We have. We want you to be our baby's godmother."

"Baby?" I said, unconsciously holding my breath. "As in one baby? As in… you're pregnant?"

She nodded.

I heard leaves crunch outside the shed, and I knew Sam was out there … ready to stop me if I lost my temper and tried to hurt her. I couldn't do that, I wouldn't do that.

I hugged her again. "Congratulations, Emily," I murmured shakily. "Of course I'll be the baby's godmother. Thank you."

When she let go of me, I let the crayons and coloring book fall to the floor as I stood up and left the shed. "Don't follow me, don't phase," I told Sam as I walked past him.

The last thing I heard as I dropped my sweater and skirt in the mud and let the tremors take over my body were two words in a deep, hushed voice. "I'm sorry."

I took off running as soon as my paws hit the ground. Embry was the only one phased, because he had no imprint and his mom was working – we were letting the vampires fend for themselves otherwise, and I used my beta status to order him back to human and to Sam's. I just wanted to be alone.

Two may be company and three a crowd, but it wasn't even three anymore. I was number four now.

As I let my inner wolf take over, I vaguely wondered if being number four instead of number three would make a difference when I looked at Sam.

I had to hope it would.

I couldn't take much more pain.


	17. No pain, no gain

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **No pain, no gain.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Emmett**  
Rating: **K**

The unusually warm sun, for the Olympic Peninsula, felt so very good on my bare skin as I lay on the fresh grass. Having just finished patrol, I'd phased back and laid down before I put my clothes back on. Emmett Cullen had been watching me from the tree line for almost the entire time.

"If your wife finds out you were watching me sunbathe naked, it'd better be you she goes after," I warned him, lying perfectly still with my eyes still closed, "because if I have to defend myself, it'll be her that can't be put back together again."

"Man, how'd you know I was here?" he grumbled. "I'm downwind."

"Yes, but for someone who can stand as still as a statue and doesn't need to breathe, you make a ridiculous amount of noise," I pointed out, reached to the side and tugging my t-shirt dress so it was draped over all the important parts of my body. "Like a bull in a china shop, my grandmother used to say."

"Bulls are gross," he declared, walking across the clearing and very obviously trying to be quiet about it – he failed at that too. "Like a bear in a china shop, if you please."

I wrinkled my nose and opened one eye to look at him. "Ew, you've hunted bulls? More than that, does blood really taste different depending on what animal it's from?"

"Yes and yes." He plopped into the grass near me; not too close, downwind, and not blocking my sunlight. "Animals that are meat eaters taste more like humans. Bulls just taste… off. Bears are my favorite."

"Why?" I asked, before I could think better of showing an interest.

I heard, rather than saw, Emmett shrug. "I lost a fight with a bear as a human. I suppose I'm eternally getting revenge."

I nodded once in understanding. "Makes sense. If a bear led to me be turned into an immortal bloodsucker, I'd want revenge too."

"Not that kind of revenge, Clearwater," he sighed dramatically. "The kind of revenge where I can't believe a bear beat me so no other bear ever will beat me. I'm all good with the immortal bloodsucker thing."

"Just good old, pure revenge, then? No complicated twists?"

Emmett nodded emphatically. "You got it. Why make the simple things complicated?"

"No offense, Bear Bait," I said, coming up with a nickname on the spot and laughing when he fist-bumped the air and shouted that he loved the nickname, "but your family kinda has a thing for making simple things complicated."

"Thank you for the awesome nickname, first," he said, flashing me a dimpled grin. "Second, you haven't lived with my family since 1935. And, I kid you not, they used to be worse. Sometimes I figure my talent, gift, whatever you want to call it is not making simple things complicated."

"Cover your eyes," I ordered him, and I sat up and pulled my dress over my head when he did. "Your family really used to be worse?"

"Hell yeah," he said, dropping his head and shaking his head ruefully. "If you think Edward is uptight now, you should've seen him then. Of course, Rosalie was still waging her silent but never deadly war with Carlisle over him turning her so that made things a little complicated too. Then Jasper and Alice showed up. Me and Esme used to go hunting together twice as much as we needed to just to relax."

I shivered at the idea of Edward as more uptight. "Even with all that, even with your family being that way, even with the fact that you're a vampire," I said slowly, "you're still peachy with how it all turned out?"

"Again, hell yeah," he said without a hint of uncertainty. "No pain, no gain, you know? As much as I hate that damn bear, what happened led me to Rosalie and to my family that I have now. I mean, yeah, I regretted what the McCartys had to go through when I died, but Edward gave me money and I left it for them. But this, this is where I'm supposed to be. Getting here hurt, a lot sometimes, but there's nowhere else I'd rather be. Know what I mean?"

The oddest thing about all that he'd just said was that I did know what he meant. In my life, there was a lot that could've been different before, but I was starting to be okay with the now.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I admitted.

Emmett grinned easily again. "I thought you would. Anyway, do you trust me?"

"You still a bloodsucker?"

"Yep," he said proudly.

"Then the answer to your other question would be a definitive no."

"Sweet," he said, winking at me as he got to his feet. "Can you take me on the reservation?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why?"

"I want to cliff dive," he answered simply. "Jacob was telling me about it and Renesmee showed me Jacob doing it, and now I want to try but I gotta be on the reservation."

"Why don't you get Jacob to take you?"

"He's fishing with Bella's father or something. Can't you take me, Clearwater? Please? I bet you're more fun than Jacob anyway," he pointed out, stroking my ego just right. "Or don't Quileute girls cliff dive?"

Having stroked my ego, he then questioned it. There was no better way to get me to do something and I jumped to my feet. "Let's go, leech."

He fist-bumped the air again and fell into step beside me.

As we walked, I wondered if maybe I should've checked it out with Sam or Jacob, but Sam wasn't my alpha anymore and Jacob was technically the only alpha, and he was the one who put the idea into Emmett's head, so it was all on him anyway.

I led Emmett up to the highest cliff. The water was raging below us, and it was only our supernatural hearing that let us know the other one was talking at all.

"Show me," he said, gesturing toward the edge.

A little fond of my cute dress, I pulled it over my head and stuffed it into the pouch around my ankle. Then I jumped. It was exhilarating.

Emmett hit the water a half second after I did. Seeing that I was struggling against the waves a little bit more than him, he grabbed my arm and held onto me. "That was awesome, Clearwater!" he shouted over the noise of the water. "Can we jump again?"

I grinned in spite of myself and nodded.

We jumped another five times.


	18. Don't bite the hand that feeds you

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Don't bite the hand that feeds you.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Rachel**  
Rating: **K**

I lie in my bed and listen to the voices carry through the open window. As Rachel calls Paul a selfish prick, I vaguely wonder if my mom took Billy with her when she went to spend the night at Charlie's. Also slightly puzzling was where my brother was spending the night. I really hope I'm not supposed to know. In any case, Sam will know where he was.

"I can't believe I have no choice in this!" Rachel shrieks, her voice carrying through the night. "None of this should be real, Paul. Don't you see that?"

His voice is far less shrill, but still carries very well, when he answers her. "I do see that, Rachel, I really do. But can't you see that I can't control it? I just want you to be happy, Rachel. I'll do whatever I have to do to make you happy. Even if that means letting you go."

I snort to myself. Paul will never be able to let her go. Hearing him sound so pitiful as he dealt with his imprint, though, is kind of making me feel bad for him. Kind of.

"I need time, Paul," Rachel says angrily. "It hasn't been that long since my dad told me about all of this imprinting and wolves and vampires crap. I need time."

"Whatever you need, Rachel," I hear him say quietly.

Giving up on sleep and slightly curious as to where my brother is, I swing my legs out of bed and grab the closest t-shirt and shorts I can find. Rachel Black is a whiny twit, and she always has been. When Rebecca ran away with her surfer husband, I cried because I actually liked her. Rachel is a snobby, self-important, condescending witch. If my pack brothers think they have it bad dealing with me, they really need to be thankful that she didn't phase.

Then again, Paul is finding out now. And that means the rest of them will find out soon enough.

I make a quick circle of the rez, reassuring myself that my brother is sleeping at Collin's, and then head to the beach. It's always quiet there.

So naturally that's where Rachel decides to be.

"What are you doing out here?" she asks me.

I have to give her credit. She knows I phase into a wolf, and probably that I have a temper shorter than a broken match, and yet she still acts like a witch around me. "Couldn't sleep," I mutter, hoping she'll go away.

She doesn't. "Wolf stuff?" she asks.

I roll my eyes at the horizon and shake my head. "The neighbors were being loud."

"Can you believe it?" she asks, not even pretending to be sorry. "I mean, this imprinting stuff."

"You're asking the one who can turn into a wolf if she can believe imprinting?" I repeat in disbelief. "Have you lost your freaking mind, Rachel?"

"I feel like I have. I come home, because I don't have an apartment anywhere else yet, and Paul Lahote imprints on me and then my father tells me that vampires and werewolves are real. What about that doesn't say that I lost my mind?" She's pacing circles around me on the sand, and I only just resist the urge to kick her legs out from under her. "Why would I be happy about this? Why me?"

"Again, all you have to do is be loved by someone," I point out tersely, "while I get to turn into a wolf. So don't complain to me about being loved by someone. You know, you haven't been home in four years. Your dad and Jake missed you. Hell, Jake could've used someone else to help take care of Billy. With you and Rebecca running away like the place was on fire, it's like they lost two more people. So for you to march in here on your high horse and start criticizing what we've all be living with for months is really inconsiderate, Rachel."

"Who doesn't think of themselves first, Leah?" she snaps accusingly. "I've heard about how you've acted since Sam broke up with you."

"He imprinted on Emily, idiot!" I hiss. "I hate it, but I accept it, even if it is with incredible reluctance. How about how I've acted since my father died when I turned into a wolf in front of him? But unlike you, Rachel, I can't run away like you did. I have to stay here and protect my people, our people."

"So you're just jealous that I could leave? And happy I have to stay? Or are you jealous that Paul imprinted on me?"

"Jealous that you could leave, yes," I admit grudgingly. "Happy that you have to stay, maybe a little. Jealous that Paul imprinted on you, no.

"Didn't Emily and Sam and your dad explain this to you at all?"

Rachel shrugs and flops into the sand beside me. "Yes, but maybe I'm too much of an idiot to understand properly. Why don't you try explaining it to me?"

I'm proud of myself for keeping my mouth shut about the idiot comment she all but invited, and I try to figure out just how to explain things to an idiot like her. "Because he imprinted on you, Paul is going to dedicate his life to you. If you told him to only eat lettuce for a month, and smiled at him for doing it, he'd be happy doing it. If anyone ever threatens you, he will be there to protect you even if it means dying for you. As long as you are safe and happy, he will be content in life."

She thinks about this for a few minutes and then nods. "So I'm making him miserable by flipping out?"

Surprised by her grasp of it, and my own ability to explain it, all I can do is nod at first. "Yes. Yes, you are making him miserable simply by being miserable. His world is connected to yours, whether either of you like it or not.

"It sounds crass, but you can't bite the hand that feeds you, you know?"

Rachel nods and exhales deeply. "I'll try be better," she tells the ocean before turning to me. "Is that what you're jealous of, Leah? Imprinting."

I don't want to admit it to her, but I do. "You, Emily, Kim, even Claire… yeah, I'm jealous of it."


	19. The darkest hour is just before dawn

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **The darkest hour is just before dawn.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Alice**  
Rating: **K**

The little vampire was staring at me. It was creepy.

"What do you want?" I snapped when I couldn't take it any longer.

"Nothing," the little psychic said as she looked away.

"Then stop staring at me."

"I wasn't," she insisted too innocently.

"Yes, you were. I only bit if you annoy me, so without annoying me, tell me what you want."

She unfolded herself from the chair she was sitting on and crossed over to stand in front of me. "I was thinking about some clothes I designed," she said, starting where I never would have expected her to start, "and Rosalie's in Alaska; she's my usual model, so I started thinking about you."

I blinked and looked at her in disbelief. "You want me to model clothes you designed?"

"Not on a runway or anything, unless you wanted to," she told me shyly, "but, since you're just sitting there, would you mind standing there while I fitted and adjusted things on you?"

I thought about it, noting that neither Seth nor Jacob was there – I was only keeping watch over my mom and Charlie – and shrugged. "What the hell? Where do you want me to stand?"

She waved me forward and then blurred up the stairs. I followed more slowly, ending up with only her scent to lead me to a small room at the end of the second floor hallway. One wall of the room was covered with colorful sketches tacked everywhere, though none seemed higher than she could reach standing on the floor, and the other three walls were all sparkling mirrors. Two dress forms, headless and limbless, stood off to one side and were draped with even more colorful fabrics.

"Those colors are kind of… bright," I said as she tugged a heavy round podium from the center of the room to a corner.

"Oh, I know," she agreed. "Those are for Nessie's clothes and other kids clothes. My colors for adult clothes are much less garish and much more classically understated."

"Right. Of course." I sighed and squared my shoulders. "What do you want me to do?"

"Stand there," she said, pointing to the bit of carpet that'd been flattened by the podium – I assumed I was too tall to stand on the stool and have the miniature vampire reach what she needed to reach. "Stand there and don't phase or freak when I touch you, please."

I followed her orders, not even flinching as she tugged on my tank top and denim skirt until I stripped out of them. I didn't wear a bra because my wolf-y side gave me flawless boobs but I had, thankfully, starting wearing panties again as I got better at controlling my phasing. "Them too?" I asked her, pointing.

"Nope, you can keep them on for now," she said as she bustled around the room with armfuls of fabric.

I looked at myself in the mirror as she draped things and pinned things and hemmed things, all of which were on my body. I had to admit that I had a pretty damn good body. It was better now than it had been pre-wolf. I tried not to preen noticeably and decided it might be best to distract the vampire.

"So what's your story?" I asked her. "I've been randomly stumbling across things about the rest of your family but even Seth hasn't told me yours."

"Oh, you know, girl sees boy in her mind and falls in love with him. Twenty-eight years later, girl meets boy and they live happily ever after."

She said it like it was nothing, but I saw a lot of things in her simple sentences. "You can tell me to mind my own business," I started out as she readjusted the position of my leg, "but I meant your human life. And you waited twenty-eight years? Seriously?"

"Seriously," she smiling, "it was worth every minute."

"And your human life?" I pressed, considering myself safe because she hadn't said no.

"I don't remember anything about it," she replied bluntly, but I could hear the pain her words held. "I've found out since that I was in a mental asylum in Mississippi, but I don't know why. Most of the records of the place were lost in a fire."

"You don't remember your parents?"

She shook her head and started pinning faster. "Nothing. I don't remember anything. One day I woke up and I saw Jasper. That's it."

"That's not enough?" I asked softly.

"It is," she said, and I learned then that vampires can sniffle, "but I'd just like to know, you know? And I lied, sort of. Carlisle has at least some of my files from the asylum. I just don't know if I'm ready to know."

She was actually crying then so, with little thought to seams and hems and pins, I crouched down so we were at the same level. "I'm sorry, Alice," I said, using her name for the first time – even as I wondered if that was really her name. "I didn't mean to make you so upset."

She tried to stop crying, and failed. "It's okay," she said wetly. "I'm sorry to cry in front of you."

I put my hand on her arm, because I wasn't ready to hug a vampire, and tried to think of something comforting to say. "You know, no one would blame you if you never wanted to look at those files. Maybe your mind blocked them out because they were bad."

"Or maybe I'm just crazy," she muttered.

"You don't seem that crazy to me," I offered, earning a shocked looked from her. "Think of your human years as dark ones. And you know what they say, don't you?"

She shook her head and kept her amber eyes locked on me.

I gave myself a minute to remember the exact proverb I'd seen hanging in my mother's kitchen six thousand and seven times. "They say that the darkest hour is just before dawn," I recited. "Your human years are the darkness, and the darkest ones were in the asylum. Now you finish it," I prodded her.

"And Jasper is my dawn," she said, the countenance of her face changing completely. She hugged me, and I hugged her back. "Thank you, Leah. A lot of people have tried to make me feel better about it all, but that's the best."

I couldn't help but smile back. "Good, you're welcome," I said as I stood back up. "Now let's get back to work, even if my work is just standing here."

Alice was more than happy to do just that.


	20. If at first you don't succeed, try, try

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Jared**  
Rating: **K**

My paws dug into the wet earth as I raced Jared deep in the Olympic National Park. He could see further than any wolf in either pack but I was the fastest. Unless we were chasing a specific target, I would win. Every time.

And I did.

_Dude, did you get faster?_ he asked me as I preened when he caught up to me at our finish line.

_Dude, did you get slower?_ I countered smugly. _Are you ready to admit it yet?_

_Admit that you're better than me? Hell no! _he squawked indignantly.

I shook my head and twitched my tail. _Not better as Leah or Jared, you idiot. Remember, we're trying to determine if Sam or Jacob has the better beta; i.e. you or me._

I hadn't actually made that the stated goal of our little mini wolf Olympics but, when he thought like a man, Jared bordered on depressingly gullible so he quickly agreed with me even though it was the first he'd heard of it.

_Fine. What's the next challenge then? What are we doing? Best out of seven? _he asked, pacing back and forth in the little clearing we'd found.

_Sure, best of seven, _I agreed. _Um, since we did a flat run, let's do a run over the mountains to the Hoh ranger station. On three; one, two…_

I started running instead of saying three, and it's fair because Jared did too. I won, again, because I'm lighter and more agile than him. My victory isn't even hampered by him kicking a pile of loose rocks in my path during the six seconds he ran ahead of me.

_Fluke! _he shouted when he saw me parading happily around the crest of a hill near the ranger station. _It's a fluke. Nothing more, nothing less._

I shrugged my shoulders and yipped at him, giving in to my she-wolf for a minute. _Whatever, Cameron. Best out of seven will be over very quickly since it's now two to zip. You can pick the next thing._

He rolled his eyes at me. _I'm taking Kim to dinner tonight but, after that, meet me on First Beach. We'll do a night run and see if you're still as fast when you can't see as well._

_I am, _I assured him. _You'll see. Have fun mooning over your imprint. And no, Jared, I will not hang around and wait for you to finish having sex or anything like that. If you're not on the beach at midnight, you forfeit and we're at three to nothing. Got it?_

_Got it, _he agreed. _I'll be there. My pride and the pride of my pack are on the line. You better believe I'll be there._

I had dinner with my family, a family that now seemed to include Charlie Swan – not that I minded, and ignored them a little while I psyched myself up for the night run. I didn't really like night runs. It wasn't that I wasn't fast, I was. It was that the scratches from the branches I ran into didn't hurt, or show up, until I phased back to human. Jacob had tried to tell me that it was because I ran too fast and that if I ran slower, I'd see the branches better, but I ignored him.

Jared was on the beach before I was. We walked in silence to the tree line and phased. He counted off, setting the edge of the Makah reservation as the turn around point to race back.

To my dismay, Jared won. I was literally on his tail when we got back to La Push, but it was the nose that counted and his nose hit home first.

_Too bad we can't convince a Cullen to let us take 'em apart, _Jared mused, keeping his victory dance to a minimum.

I barked out a laugh, liking Jared more because he'd had that thought. _Yeah, it is, _I agreed. _Of course, my alpha would take me apart for even thinking it._

_Yup, and then I'd be the best beta, _he smirked. _Oh, I know. Let's cliff dive human and whoever gets back to the top of the cliff first, still human, wins._

As much as I hated cliff diving, I wasn't going to turn any challenge down. To get Jared back for the rocks in my path, I grabbed his foot as we swam to shore and shoved him under the water just long enough to give myself a lead. But he still won.

Our fifth challenge, chosen by me, was a hunting challenge. I hated eating raw more than I hated cliff diving, but I was running out of ideas. The test would be whoever could catch and eat a deer the fastest. The only plus side for me, unless I happened to win, was that I was taking two deer out of the Cullens' immediate food chain.

Jared won. Again.

He gloated just as much as I would have.

I suggested the sixth challenge be a foot race, just on two human feet, from La Push to Forks and back again. It was longer than a marathon, but we had the stamina for it. Jared agreed warily, probably sensing that we were going to be tied again.

He was dragging when he got back to La Push and I danced around him.

"There's only one thing left, I think," he panted, as he tried not to pant.

"A fight," I finished for him.

"We could call it a draw and say we're both awesome beta's," he offered, his attempt at chivalry coming through bluntly.

I shook my head. "No way. It's on. First wolf to pin the other is the best beta." I stuck out my hand to him. "Deal?"

We shook on it and agreed to fight the next afternoon.

Naturally, word spread fast and everyone from both packs was gathered to watch us. Neither Sam nor Jacob seemed too pleased with the idea, but I didn't care.

The fight last twenty minutes. It took a little while for Jared to give in to his wolf and stop thinking of me as Leah, and really fight, but he did.

And then I pinned him.

_Two months, _he thought to me as I stood over him. _We'll do this again in two months because you know what they say; if at first you don't succeed, try, try again._

I snickered and licked him. _Okay, Cameron. You can try to reclaim your dignity in two months. Meanwhile, I am the best beta. So suck it!_


	21. A chain is only as strong as its weakest

**I don't own this.**

_Yeah, I got tired of writing long, 1000+ word things for this so this one, and the rest, will be 100 word drabbles. I think they may work even better than the longer ones. Let me know what you think!_

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Embry**  
Rating: **K**

I felt guilty when the younger wolves picked up on my thought from yesterday.

I felt guilty even before Embry cringed.

Why did I have to be an idiot about his unknown father?

_It's okay, Leah, _he told me, _it's not like I don't think about it all the time._

_You gotta stop. I gotta stop making you feel like less, _I told him. _A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and you are not the weakest link. We have to make sure you never feel that way again. Okay?_

He dipped his head in silent thanks.


	22. Blood is thicker than water

**I don't own this.**

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Blood is thicker than water.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Charlie**  
Rating: **K**

I fixed Charlie's tie as the Old Quil played his flute outside. "Just so you know, I'm good with this."

He looked at me closely. "If you're not, your mom and I won't do it."

"I'm an adult, Charlie. I know you're not trying to replace my dad. You were my dad's best friend and you make my mom happy, that's what matters. Blood may be thicker than water, but no one would ever say no to water."

He laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Just how it was meant," I promised. "Now let's go make you my step-father."


	23. Practice makes perfect

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Practice makes perfect.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Seth**  
Rating: **K**

"Stop stepping on my feet!" I yelped in pain.

Seth moaned and threw himself onto the forest floor. "I give up, Leah. I'll never be able to dance with Ash without breaking her toes."

"Maybe I'm a bad teacher," I said, hoping it wasn't true because I'd decided I wanted to be just that one day. "Maybe you should go ask your vampires to show you."

Maybe hearing uncertainty in my voice, he jumped back to his feet and nodded determinedly. "Nope, you're teaching me to dance. Remember what Mom always says…"

"Practice makes perfect," we finished in perfect unison.


	24. Do as I say, not as I do

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **Do as I say, not as I do.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Sue**  
Rating: **K**

"I settled, Leah," my mom told me passionately. "Not that I'd trade you, your brother, or your father for the world, but I could have done more. I could have challenged things. I could have kept working when Billy said not to. But I didn't. I just did what someone told me to do.

"Don't be like me. Don't stop fighting for yourself. I see you trying to do that and I don't like it. I want you to yell at me when I don't make sense. I want you to break things. I want you to live your life."


	25. The bigger they are, the harder they

**I don't own this.**

* * *

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: **The bigger they are, the harder they fall.**  
Pen Name: **idealskeptic**  
Pairing/Character(s): **Leah/Harry**  
Rating: **K**

We humans take things for granted.

It doesn't matter if we take material things for granted.

It's when we take fellow human beings for granted that we screw ourselves.

We just assume everything's going to keep going along as it was.

Nothing to worry about.

And then it happens.

My dad died.

He was my whole world when I was little.

I was his teenage daughter when I grew up.

I tried to be good, I did.

And he loved me anyway.

Now I'm alone.

And it hurts more than I ever thought it would.

I miss him so much.

* * *

_And this brings my character study of Leah to a close. I've had fun, and I hope you have too. If you've left reviews telling me what you loved, what you liked, and what you wanted to read more of… you are too sweet, too kind, and too lovely. If you've left reviews telling me what you didn't love, didn't like, and what I should have wrote… well, maybe you shouldn't have left a review at all._

_Since the prompts here are about adages, this is one I like… __**"if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all**__." Fanfic reviews need to remember that sometimes. I don't know about you, but I'm not here for professional editing and criticisms. If I have a couple typos or don't write a character how you think it should be written, I really don't care. By telling me, all you do is annoy me. I'm here to have fun and be free. If you don't like what I've written, please be quiet and move on to a story you like more. That's what I do…_

_I'll get off my soapbox now._

_A thousands thanks to everyone who liked what I wrote!_


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